Path rendering by covering the path based on a generated stencil buffer

ABSTRACT

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for rendering paths by first generating a stencil buffer indicating pixels of the path that should be covered and then covering the path. The paths may be filled or stroked without tessellating the paths. Path rendering may be accelerated when a graphics processing unit or other processor that is configured to perform operations to generate the stencil buffer and cover the path to fill or stroke the path.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority benefit to U.S. provisional patent application titled, “Path Rendering,” filed on May 21, 2010 and having Ser. No. 61/347,359 . This related application is also hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to graphics processing and more specifically to path rendering by covering the path based on a generated stencil buffer.

2. Description of the Related Art

Path rendering is a style of resolution-independent two-dimensional (2D) rendering, often called “vector graphics,” that is the basis for a number of important rendering standards such as PostScript, Java 2D, Apple's Quartz 2D, OpenVG, PDF, TrueType fonts, OpenType fonts, PostScript fonts, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) web format, Microsoft's Silverlight and Adobe Flash for interactive web experiences, Open XML Paper Specification (OpenXPS), drawings in Office file formats including PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator illustrations, and more.

Path rendering is resolution-independent meaning that a scene is described by paths without regard to the pixel resolution of the framebuffer. This is in contrast to the resolution-dependent nature of so-called bitmapped graphics. Whereas bitmapped images exhibit blurred or pixilated appearance when zoomed or otherwise transformed, scenes specified with path rendering can be rendered at different resolutions or otherwise transformed without blurring the boundaries of filled or stroked paths.

Sometimes the term vector graphics is used to mean path rendering, but path rendering is a more specific approach to computer graphics. While vector graphics could be any computer graphics approach that represents objects (typically 2D) in a resolution-independent way, path rendering is a much more specific rendering model with salient features that include path filling, path stroking, dashing, path masking, compositing, and path segments specified as Bèzier curves.

FIG. 1A is a prior art scene composed of a sequence of paths. In path rendering, a 2D picture or scene such as that shown in FIG. 1A is specified as a sequence of paths. Each path is specified by a sequence of path commands and a corresponding set of scalar coordinates. Path rendering is analogous to how an artist draws with pens and brushes. A path is a collection of sub-paths. Each sub-path (also called a trajectory) is a connected sequence of line segments and/or curved segments. Each sub-path may be closed, meaning the sub-path's start and terminal points are the same location so the stroke forms a loop; alternatively, a sub-path can be open, meaning the sub-path's start and terminal points are distinct.

When rendering a particular path, the path may be filled, stroked, or both. As shown in FIG. 1A, the paths constituting the scene are stroked. When a path is both filled and stroked, typically the stroking operation is done immediately subsequent to the filling operation so the stroking outlines the filled region. Artists tend to use stroking and filling together in this way to help highlight or offset the filled region so typically the stroking is done with a different color than the filling.

FIG. 1B is the sequence of paths shown in FIG. 1A with only filling. Filling is the process of coloring or painting the set of pixels “inside” the closed sub-paths of a path. Filling is similar to the way a child would “color in between the lines” of a coloring book. If a sub-path within a path is not closed when such a sub-path is filled, the standard practice is to force the sub-path closed by connecting its end and start points with an implicit line segment, thereby closing the sub-path, and then filling that resulting closed path.

While the meaning of “inside a path” generally matches the intuitive meaning of this phrase, path rendering formalizes this notion with what is called a fill-rule. The intuitive sense of “inside” is sufficient as long as a closed sub-path does not self-intersect itself. However if a sub-path intersects itself or another sub-path or some sub-paths are fully contained within other sub-paths, what it means to be inside or outside the path needs to be better specified.

Stroking is distinct from filling and is more analogous to tracing or outlining each sub-path in a path as if with a pen or marker. Stroking operates on the perimeter or boundary defined by the path whereas filling operates on the path's interior. Unlike filling, there is no requirement for the sub-paths within a path to be closed for stroking. For example, the curve of a letter “S” could be stroked without having to be closed though the curve of the letter “O” could also be stroked.

FIG. 1C is a prior art scene composed of the sequence of paths from FIG. 1A with the stroking from FIG. 1A and the filling from FIG. 1B. FIG. 1C shows how filling and stroking are typically combined in a path rendering scene for a complete the scene. Both stroking and filling are integral to the scene's appearance.

Traditionally, graphics processing units (GPUs) have included features to accelerate 2D bitmapped graphics and three-dimensional (3D) graphics. In today's systems, nearly all path rendering is performed by a central processing unit (CPU) performing scan-line rendering with no acceleration by a GPU. GPUs do not directly render curved primitives so path rendering primitives such as Bèzier segments and partial elliptical arcs must be approximated by lots of tiny triangles when a GPU is used to render the paths. Constructing the required tessellations of a path that is approximated by many short connected line segments can create a substantial CPU burden. The triangles or other polygons resulting from tessellation are then rendered by the GPU. Because GPUs are so fast at rasterizing triangles, tessellating paths into polygons that can then be rendered by GPUs is an obvious approach to GPU-accelerating path rendering.

Tessellation is a fragile, often quite sequential, process that requires global inspection of the entire path. Tessellation depends on dynamic data structures to sort, search, and otherwise juggle the incremental steps involved in generating a tessellation. Path rendering makes this process considerably harder by permitting curved path segments as well as allowing path segments to self-intersect, form high genus topologies, and be unbounded in size.

A general problem with using a GPU to render paths is unacceptably poor antialiasing quality when compared to standard CPU-based methods. The problem is that GPUs rely on point sampling for rasterization of triangular primitives with only 1 to 8 samples (often 4) per pixel. CPU-based scan-line methods typically rely on 16 or more samples per pixel and can accumulate coverage over horizontal spans.

Animating or editing paths is costly because it requires re-tessellating the entire path since the tessellation is resolution dependent, and in general it is very difficult to prove a local edit to a path will not cause a global change in the tessellation of the path. Furthermore, when curved path segments are present and the scaling of the path with respect to pixel space changes appreciably (zooming in say), the curved path segments may need to be re-subdivided and re-tessellation is likely to be necessary.

Additionally, compositing in path rendering systems typically requires that pixels rasterized by a filled or stroked path are updated once-and-only-once per rasterization of the path. This requirement means non-overlapping tessellations are required. So for example, a cross cannot be tessellated as two overlapping rectangles but rather must be rendered by the outline of the cross, introducing additional vertices and primitives. In particular, this means the sub-paths of a path cannot be processed separately without first determining that no two sub-paths overlap. These requirements, combined with the generally fragile and sequential nature of tessellation algorithms make path tessellation particularly expensive. Because of the expense required in generating tessellations, it is very tempting and pragmatic to cache tessellations. Unfortunately such tessellations are much less compact than the original path representations, particularly when curved path segments are involved. Consequently, a greater amount of data must be stored to cache paths after tessellation compared with storing the paths prior to tessellation. Cached tessellations are also ineffective when paths are animated or rendered just once.

Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a robust and efficient system and method for rendering filled and stroked paths without tessellating the paths. Today path rendering systems and methods typically execute on the CPU and are implemented in the context of a scan-line rasterizer; these algorithms do not benefit from the efficient execution model of the GPU. Tessellating filled or stroked paths into triangles for GPU rendering is unattractive for the reasons previously outlined. A technique developed by Charles Loop and Jim Blinn (described in Resolution Independent Curve Rendering using Programmable Graphics Hardware, ACM Transactions on Graphics, Volume 24, Issue 3, July 2005) provide an implicit form for cubic Bèzier curves suitable for efficient evaluation by pixel shaders, but the technique requires the interior of the cubic Bèzier curves to be tessellated into triangles. Other conventional techniques fill paths without tessellation by rendering concave polygons constructed of line segments that are not curved using a stencil buffer. Kokojima et al. (in Resolution Independent Rendering of Deformable Vector Objects using Graphics Hardware, ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches) describe a tessellation-free approach to filling paths including quadratic Bèzier path segments. However, the approach described by Kokojima et al. is limited to quadratic Bèzier curves and thereby avoids the technical difficulties created by the topological complexity of cubic Bèzier curves. Rueda et.al. (in GPU-based rendering of curved polygons using simplicial coverings. Computers and Graphics, Volume 32, Issue 5, October 2008, pages 581-588.) propose a tessellation-free approach capable of handling cubic Bèzier curves. However, their technique requires Bèzier normalization that results in many times more arithmetic operations per Bèzier curve tested against a point compared with the implicit form of the Bèzier curve developed by Loop and Blinn. Nehab et al. (in Random-access Rendering of General Vector Graphics, ACM Transactions on Graphics, Volume 27, Issue 5, 2007) provide GPU-accelerated system for path rendering. However, their system is limited in the shading and clipping functionality available and demands considerable pre-processing of the scene, making dynamic scene adjustments such as editing difficult. These approaches do not provide a complete method that incorporates the complete set of expected path rendering functionality such as dynamic and editable scenes, arbitrary shading of filled or stroked paths, clipping rendered paths to other arbitrary paths, accurate stroking, and integration with existing 3D rendering. Therefore, the present invention develops a method and system for rendering stroked and filled paths using a programmable GPU that is free of tessellation, suitable for dynamic scenes, capable of clipping rendered paths to arbitrary paths, coloring paths with arbitrary programmable shading, and able to integrate with conventional 3D graphics.

Conventional stroking has been performed by approximating paths into sub-pixel linear segments and then tracing the segments with a circle having a diameter equal to a stroke width. Offset curves are generated at the boundary of the stroked path. These offset curves are typically of much higher degree of complexity compared with the linear segments that are traced to generate the stroked path. Determining whether or not each pixel is inside or outside of a stroked path to generate the stroking is mathematically complex. Identification of the pixels to be stroked is equivalent to identifying pixels that are within half of the stroke width of any point along the path to be stroked. More specifically, the pixels to be stroked are within half of the stroke width measured along a line that is perpendicular to the tangent of the path segment being stroked.

In standard path rendering systems, paths are specified as a sequence of cubic and quadratic (non-rational) Bèzier curve segments, partial elliptical arcs, and line segments. While more mathematically complex path segments representations could be used to specify paths, in practice, existing standards limit themselves to the aforementioned path segment types.

Path filling and stroking use the same underlying path specification. For filling, this means the resulting piece-wise boundaries to be filled may be up to third-order (in the case of cubic Bèzier segments) or rational second-order (in the case of partial elliptical arcs). Filling these curved boundaries of Bèzier curves and arcs is clearly harder than filling the standard polygonal primitives in conventional polygonal 2D or 3D rendering where the boundaries (edges) of the polygonal primitives (usually triangles) are all first-order, being linear segments, and often required to be convex. Filling (and stroking) are also harder than conventional line and convex polygon rasterization because paths are unbounded in their complexity whereas line segments and triangles are defined by just 2 or 3 points respectively. A path may contain just a single path segment or it could contain thousands or more.

The boundaries of stroked paths are actually substantially higher order than the third-order segments. The offset curve of non-rational (second-order) quadratic and (third-order) Bèzier curves are eighth- and tenth-order curves respectively. This high order makes exact determination and evaluation of the resulting offset curves for such Bèzier segments intractable for use in direct rendering. In other words, it is quite unreasonable to try to determine exactly the boundary representation of such offset curves and then simply fill them. For this reason, various techniques have been developed to approximate offset curves with sequences of Bèzier, arc, or line segments. These approximate stroke boundaries may then be filled.

Proper stroking is hard because of the mathematical complexity of the boundary of a path's stroke compared to a path's fill. While approximations to the actual stroke boundary can reduce this complexity, such approximations have associated costs due to inaccuracy and the resulting expansion in the number of primitives that must be both stored and processed to render such approximated strokes. For example, the stroke of a quadratic Bèzier segment can be represented with just the segment's 3 control points (along with the per-path stroke width) whereas an approximation of this stroked boundary with line segments might require dozens or even hundreds of triangles to tessellate approximately the stroked region. Indeed the quality of such tessellations depends on the projection of the curved segment to pixel (or screen) space; this means rendering the same stroked curve at different resolutions would necessitate different tessellations.

Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved system and method for rendering paths including filling and stroking of paths.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for rendering paths by first generating a stencil buffer indicating pixels of the path that should be covered and then covering the path. The paths may be filled or stroked without tessellating the paths. Path rendering may be accelerated when a GPU or other processor that is configured to perform operations to generate the stencil buffer and cover the path to fill or stroke the path.

Various embodiments of a method of the invention for rendering a path include receiving a specification of the path. Executing, by a graphics processing unit, a first instruction to generate a stencil buffer indicating samples of the path to be covered by rasterizing path geometry. Executing, by the graphics processing unit, a second instruction to rasterize covering geometry that conservatively covers the path to determine surviving pixels that are covered by the path and shade the surviving pixels to produce a rendered image of the path, where the surviving pixels pass a stencil test that applies the stencil buffer to the rasterized covering geometry.

The path may first be decomposed into simple cubic Bezier path segments to generate the stencil buffer when the path is filled. When the path is stroked, the path may be approximated by quadratic Bezier path segments or lower order segments to generate the stencil buffer. Because the quadratic Bèzier path segments used to produce the stroked path and the simple cubic Bezier path segments used to produce the filled path are resolution-independent, the path geometry can be rasterized under arbitrary projective transformations without needing to revisit the construction of the path geometry, e.g., quadratic Bèzier path segments and simple cubic Bezier path segments. This resolution-independent property is unlike geometry sets built through a process of tessellating curved regions into triangles; in such circumstances, sufficient magnification of the stroked or filled path would reveal the tessellated underlying nature of such a tessellated geometry set. The path geometry are also compact meaning that the number of bytes required to represent the stroked or filled path is linear with the number of quadratic or simple cubic Bèzier path segments in the original path. This property does not generally hold for tessellated versions of stroked or filled paths where the process of subdividing curved edges and introducing tessellated triangles typically increases the size of the resulting geometry set considerably.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1A is a prior art scene composed of a sequence of paths;

FIG. 1B is the fill for the prior art scene shown in FIG. 1A;

FIG. 1C is the prior art scene of FIG. 1A with the fill of FIG. 1B and the stroked sequence of paths;

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a computer system configured to implement one or more aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a parallel processing subsystem for the computer system of FIG. 2A, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3A is a block diagram of a GPC within one of the PPUs of FIG. 2B, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a block diagram of a partition unit within one of the PPUs of FIG. 2B, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3C is a block diagram of a portion of the SPM of FIG. 3A, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of a graphics processing pipeline that one or more of the PPUs of FIG. 2B can be configured to implement, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C, and 5D illustrate paths that are simple Bèzier cubic path segments, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a generating curve that may be represented as a sequence of quadratic Bèzier path segments and stroked, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of a graphics processing pipeline that one or more of the PPUs of FIG. 2B can be configured to implement when performing path rendering operations, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8A is a flow diagram of method steps for rendering paths, according to one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8B is a flow diagram of method steps for executing commands that render paths by first generating a stencil buffer and then covering the path, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one of skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without one or more of these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

System Overview

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a computer system 100 configured to implement one or more aspects of the present invention. Computer system 100 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 102 and a system memory 104 communicating via an interconnection path that may include a memory bridge 105. Memory bridge 105, which may be, e.g., a Northbridge chip, is connected via a bus or other communication path 106 (e.g., a HyperTransport link) to an I/O (input/output) bridge 107. I/O bridge 107, which may be, e.g., a Southbridge chip, receives user input from one or more user input devices 108 (e.g., keyboard, mouse) and forwards the input to CPU 102 via path 106 and memory bridge 105. A parallel processing subsystem 112 is coupled to memory bridge 105 via a bus or other communication path 113 (e.g., a PCI Express, Accelerated Graphics Port, or HyperTransport link); in one embodiment parallel processing subsystem 112 is a graphics subsystem that delivers pixels to a display device 110 (e.g., a conventional CRT or LCD based monitor). A system disk 114 is also connected to I/O bridge 107. A switch 116 provides connections between I/O bridge 107 and other components such as a network adapter 118 and various add-in cards 120 and 121. Other components (not explicitly shown), including USB or other port connections, CD drives, DVD drives, film recording devices, and the like, may also be connected to I/O bridge 107. Communication paths interconnecting the various components in FIG. 2A may be implemented using any suitable protocols, such as PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), PCI-Express, AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), HyperTransport, or any other bus or point-to-point communication protocol(s), and connections between different devices may use different protocols as is known in the art.

In one embodiment, the parallel processing subsystem 112 incorporates circuitry optimized for graphics and video processing, including, for example, video output circuitry, and constitutes a graphics processing unit (GPU). In another embodiment, the parallel processing subsystem 112 incorporates circuitry optimized for general purpose processing, while preserving the underlying computational architecture, described in greater detail herein. In yet another embodiment, the parallel processing subsystem 112 may be integrated with one or more other system elements, such as the memory bridge 105, CPU 102, and I/O bridge 107 to form a system on chip (SoC).

It will be appreciated that the system shown herein is illustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. The connection topology, including the number and arrangement of bridges, the number of CPUs 102, and the number of parallel processing subsystems 112, may be modified as desired. For instance, in some embodiments, system memory 104 is connected to CPU 102 directly rather than through a bridge, and other devices communicate with system memory 104 via memory bridge 105 and CPU 102. In other alternative topologies, parallel processing subsystem 112 is connected to I/O bridge 107 or directly to CPU 102, rather than to memory bridge 105. In still other embodiments, I/O bridge 107 and memory bridge 105 might be integrated into a single chip. Large embodiments may include two or more CPUs 102 and two or more parallel processing systems 112. The particular components shown herein are optional; for instance, any number of add-in cards or peripheral devices might be supported. In some embodiments, switch 116 is eliminated, and network adapter 118 and add-in cards 120, 121 connect directly to I/O bridge 107.

FIG. 2B illustrates a parallel processing subsystem 112, according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, parallel processing subsystem 112 includes one or more parallel processing units (PPUs) 202, each of which is coupled to a local parallel processing (PP) memory 204. In general, a parallel processing subsystem includes a number U of PPUs, where U≧1. (Herein, multiple instances of like objects are denoted with reference numbers identifying the object and parenthetical numbers identifying the instance where needed.) PPUs 202 and parallel processing memories 204 may be implemented using one or more integrated circuit devices, such as programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or memory devices, or in any other technically feasible fashion.

Referring again to FIG. 2A, in some embodiments, some or all of PPUs 202 in parallel processing subsystem 112 are graphics processors with rendering pipelines that can be configured to perform various tasks related to generating pixel data from graphics data supplied by CPU 102 and/or system memory 104 via memory bridge 105 and bus 113, interacting with local parallel processing memory 204 (which can be used as graphics memory including, e.g., a conventional frame buffer) to store and update pixel data, delivering pixel data to display device 110, and the like. In some embodiments, parallel processing subsystem 112 may include one or more PPUs 202 that operate as graphics processors and one or more other PPUs 202 that are used for general-purpose computations. The PPUs may be identical or different, and each PPU may have its own dedicated parallel processing memory device(s) or no dedicated parallel processing memory device(s). One or more PPUs 202 may output data to display device 110 or each PPU 202 may output data to one or more display devices 110.

In operation, CPU 102 is the master processor of computer system 100, controlling and coordinating operations of other system components. In particular, CPU 102 issues commands that control the operation of PPUs 202. In some embodiments, CPU 102 writes a stream of commands for each PPU 202 to a pushbuffer (not explicitly shown in either FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B) that may be located in system memory 104, parallel processing memory 204, or another storage location accessible to both CPU 102 and PPU 202. PPU 202 reads the command stream from the pushbuffer and then executes commands asynchronously relative to the operation of CPU 102.

Referring back now to FIG. 2B, each PPU 202 includes an I/O (input/output) unit 205 that communicates with the rest of computer system 100 via communication path 113, which connects to memory bridge 105 (or, in one alternative embodiment, directly to CPU 102). The connection of PPU 202 to the rest of computer system 100 may also be varied. In some embodiments, parallel processing subsystem 112 is implemented as an add-in card that can be inserted into an expansion slot of computer system 100. In other embodiments, a PPU 202 can be integrated on a single chip with a bus bridge, such as memory bridge 105 or I/O bridge 107. In still other embodiments, some or all elements of PPU 202 may be integrated on a single chip with CPU 102.

In one embodiment, communication path 113 is a PCI-EXPRESS link, in which dedicated lanes are allocated to each PPU 202, as is known in the art. Other communication paths may also be used. An I/O unit 205 generates packets (or other signals) for transmission on communication path 113 and also receives all incoming packets (or other signals) from communication path 113, directing the incoming packets to appropriate components of PPU 202. For example, commands related to processing tasks may be directed to a host interface 206, while commands related to memory operations (e.g., reading from or writing to parallel processing memory 204) may be directed to a memory crossbar unit 210. Host interface 206 reads each pushbuffer and outputs the work specified by the pushbuffer to a front end 212.

Each PPU 202 advantageously implements a highly parallel processing architecture. As shown in detail, PPU 202(0) includes a processing cluster array 230 that includes a number C of general processing clusters (GPCs) 208, where C≧1. Each GPC 208 is capable of executing a large number (e.g., hundreds or thousands) of threads concurrently, where each thread is an instance of a program. In various applications, different GPCs 208 may be allocated for processing different types of programs or for performing different types of computations. For example, in a graphics application, a first set of GPCs 208 may be allocated to perform patch tessellation operations and to produce primitive topologies for patches, and a second set of GPCs 208 may be allocated to perform tessellation shading to evaluate patch parameters for the primitive topologies and to determine vertex positions and other per-vertex attributes. The allocation of GPCs 208 may vary dependent on the workload arising for each type of program or computation.

GPCs 208 receive processing tasks to be executed via a work distribution unit 200, which receives commands defining processing tasks from front end unit 212. Processing tasks include indices of data to be processed, e.g., surface (patch) data, primitive data, vertex data, and/or pixel data, as well as state parameters and commands defining how the data is to be processed (e.g., what program is to be executed). Work distribution unit 200 may be configured to fetch the indices corresponding to the tasks, or work distribution unit 200 may receive the indices from front end 212. Front end 212 ensures that GPCs 208 are configured to a valid state before the processing specified by the pushbuffers is initiated.

When PPU 202 is used for graphics processing, for example, the processing workload for each patch is divided into approximately equal sized tasks to enable distribution of the tessellation processing to multiple GPCs 208. A work distribution unit 200 may be configured to produce tasks at a frequency capable of providing tasks to multiple GPCs 208 for processing. By contrast, in conventional systems, processing is typically performed by a single processing engine, while the other processing engines remain idle, waiting for the single processing engine to complete its tasks before beginning their processing tasks. In some embodiments of the present invention, portions of GPCs 208 are configured to perform different types of processing. For example a first portion may be configured to perform vertex shading and topology generation, a second portion may be configured to perform tessellation and geometry shading, and a third portion may be configured to perform pixel shading in pixel space to produce a rendered image. Intermediate data produced by GPCs 208 may be stored in buffers to allow the intermediate data to be transmitted between GPCs 208 for further processing.

Memory interface 214 includes a number D of partition units 215 that are each directly coupled to a portion of parallel processing memory 204, where D≧1. As shown, the number of partition units 215 generally equals the number of DRAM 220. In other embodiments, the number of partition units 215 may not equal the number of memory devices. Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that DRAM 220 may be replaced with other suitable storage devices and can be of generally conventional design. A detailed description is therefore omitted. Render targets, such as frame buffers or texture maps may be stored across DRAMs 220, allowing partition units 215 to write portions of each render target in parallel to efficiently use the available bandwidth of parallel processing memory 204.

Any one of GPCs 208 may process data to be written to any of the DRAMs 220 within parallel processing memory 204. Crossbar unit 210 is configured to route the output of each GPC 208 to the input of any partition unit 215 or to another GPC 208 for further processing. GPCs 208 communicate with memory interface 214 through crossbar unit 210 to read from or write to various external memory devices. In one embodiment, crossbar unit 210 has a connection to memory interface 214 to communicate with I/O unit 205, as well as a connection to local parallel processing memory 204, thereby enabling the processing cores within the different GPCs 208 to communicate with system memory 104 or other memory that is not local to PPU 202. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2B, crossbar unit 210 is directly connected with I/O unit 205. Crossbar unit 210 may use virtual channels to separate traffic streams between the GPCs 208 and partition units 215.

Again, GPCs 208 can be programmed to execute processing tasks relating to a wide variety of applications, including but not limited to, linear and nonlinear data transforms, filtering of video and/or audio data, modeling operations (e.g., applying laws of physics to determine position, velocity and other attributes of objects), image rendering operations (e.g., tessellation shader, vertex shader, geometry shader, and/or pixel shader programs), and so on. PPUs 202 may transfer data from system memory 104 and/or local parallel processing memories 204 into internal (on-chip) memory, process the data, and write result data back to system memory 104 and/or local parallel processing memories 204, where such data can be accessed by other system components, including CPU 102 or another parallel processing subsystem 112.

A PPU 202 may be provided with any amount of local parallel processing memory 204, including no local memory, and may use local memory and system memory in any combination. For instance, a PPU 202 can be a graphics processor in a unified memory architecture (UMA) embodiment. In such embodiments, little or no dedicated graphics (parallel processing) memory would be provided, and PPU 202 would use system memory exclusively or almost exclusively. In UMA embodiments, a PPU 202 may be integrated into a bridge chip or processor chip or provided as a discrete chip with a high-speed link (e.g., PCI-EXPRESS) connecting the PPU 202 to system memory via a bridge chip or other communication means.

As noted above, any number of PPUs 202 can be included in a parallel processing subsystem 112. For instance, multiple PPUs 202 can be provided on a single add-in card, or multiple add-in cards can be connected to communication path 113, or one or more of PPUs 202 can be integrated into a bridge chip. PPUs 202 in a multi-PPU system may be identical to or different from one another. For instance, different PPUs 202 might have different numbers of processing cores, different amounts of local parallel processing memory, and so on. Where multiple PPUs 202 are present, those PPUs may be operated in parallel to process data at a higher throughput than is possible with a single PPU 202. Systems incorporating one or more PPUs 202 may be implemented in a variety of configurations and form factors, including desktop, laptop, or handheld personal computers, servers, workstations, game consoles, embedded systems, and the like.

Processing Cluster Array Overview

FIG. 3A is a block diagram of a GPC 208 within one of the PPUs 202 of FIG. 2B, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Each GPC 208 may be configured to execute a large number of threads in parallel, where the term “thread” refers to an instance of a particular program executing on a particular set of input data. In some embodiments, single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) instruction issue techniques are used to support parallel execution of a large number of threads without providing multiple independent instruction units. In other embodiments, single-instruction, multiple-thread (SIMT) techniques are used to support parallel execution of a large number of generally synchronized threads, using a common instruction unit configured to issue instructions to a set of processing engines within each one of the GPCs 208. Unlike a SIMD execution regime, where all processing engines typically execute identical instructions, SIMT execution allows different threads to more readily follow divergent execution paths through a given thread program. Persons skilled in the art will understand that a SIMD processing regime represents a functional subset of a SIMT processing regime.

Operation of GPC 208 is advantageously controlled via a pipeline manager 305 that distributes processing tasks to streaming multiprocessors (SPMs) 310. Pipeline manager 305 may also be configured to control a work distribution crossbar 330 by specifying destinations for processed data output by SPMs 310.

In one embodiment, each GPC 208 includes a number M of SPMs 310, where M≧1, each SPM 310 configured to process one or more thread groups. Also, each SPM 310 advantageously includes an identical set of functional execution units (e.g., execution units and load-store units—shown as Exec units 302 and LSUs 303 in FIG. 3C) that may be pipelined, allowing a new instruction to be issued before a previous instruction has finished, as is known in the art. Any combination of functional execution units may be provided. In one embodiment, the functional units support a variety of operations including integer and floating point arithmetic (e.g., addition and multiplication), comparison operations, Boolean operations (AND, OR, XOR), bit-shifting, and computation of various algebraic functions (e.g., planar interpolation, trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions, etc.); and the same functional-unit hardware can be leveraged to perform different operations.

The series of instructions transmitted to a particular GPC 208 constitutes a thread, as previously defined herein, and the collection of a certain number of concurrently executing threads across the parallel processing engines (not shown) within an SPM 310 is referred to herein as a “warp” or “thread group.” As used herein, a “thread group” refers to a group of threads concurrently executing the same program on different input data, with one thread of the group being assigned to a different processing engine within an SPM 310. A thread group may include fewer threads than the number of processing engines within the SPM 310, in which case some processing engines will be idle during cycles when that thread group is being processed. A thread group may also include more threads than the number of processing engines within the SPM 310, in which case processing will take place over consecutive clock cycles. Since each SPM 310 can support up to G thread groups concurrently, it follows that up to G*M thread groups can be executing in GPC 208 at any given time.

Additionally, a plurality of related thread groups may be active (in different phases of execution) at the same time within an SPM 310. This collection of thread groups is referred to herein as a “cooperative thread array” (“CTA”) or “thread array.” The size of a particular CTA is equal to m*k, where k is the number of concurrently executing threads in a thread group and is typically an integer multiple of the number of parallel processing engines within the SPM 310, and m is the number of thread groups simultaneously active within the SPM 310. The size of a CTA is generally determined by the programmer and the amount of hardware resources, such as memory or registers, available to the CTA.

Each SPM 310 contains an L1 cache (not shown) or uses space in a corresponding L1 cache outside of the SPM 310 that is used to perform load and store operations. Each SPM 310 also has access to L2 caches within the partition units 215 that are shared among all GPCs 208 and may be used to transfer data between threads. Finally, SPMs 310 also have access to off-chip “global” memory, which can include, e.g., parallel processing memory 204 and/or system memory 104. It is to be understood that any memory external to PPU 202 may be used as global memory. Additionally, an L1.5 cache 335 may be included within the GPC 208, configured to receive and hold data fetched from memory via memory interface 214 requested by SPM 310, including instructions, uniform data, and constant data, and provide the requested data to SPM 310. Embodiments having multiple SPMs 310 in GPC 208 beneficially share common instructions and data cached in L1.5 cache 335.

Each GPC 208 may include a memory management unit (MMU) 328 that is configured to map virtual addresses into physical addresses. In other embodiments, MMU(s) 328 may reside within the memory interface 214. The MMU 328 includes a set of page table entries (PTEs) used to map a virtual address to a physical address of a tile and optionally a cache line index. The MMU 328 may include address translation lookaside buffers (TLB) or caches which may reside within multiprocessor SPM 310 or the L1 cache or GPC 208. The physical address is processed to distribute surface data access locality to allow efficient request interleaving among partition units. The cache line index may be used to determine whether of not a request for a cache line is a hit or miss.

In graphics and computing applications, a GPC 208 may be configured such that each SPM 310 is coupled to a texture unit 315 for performing texture mapping operations, e.g., determining texture sample positions, reading texture data, and filtering the texture data. Texture data is read from an internal texture L1 cache (not shown) or in some embodiments from the L1 cache within SPM 310 and is fetched from an L2 cache, parallel processing memory 204, or system memory 104, as needed. Each SPM 310 outputs processed tasks to work distribution crossbar 330 in order to provide the processed task to another GPC 208 for further processing or to store the processed task in an L2 cache, parallel processing memory 204, or system memory 104 via crossbar unit 210. A preROP (pre-raster operations) 325 is configured to receive data from SPM 310, direct data to ROP units within partition units 215, and perform optimizations for color blending, organize pixel color data, and perform address translations.

It will be appreciated that the core architecture described herein is illustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. Any number of processing units, e.g., SPMs 310 or texture units 315, preROPs 325 may be included within a GPC 208. Further, while only one GPC 208 is shown, a PPU 202 may include any number of GPCs 208 that are advantageously functionally similar to one another so that execution behavior does not depend on which GPC 208 receives a particular processing task. Further, each GPC 208 advantageously operates independently of other GPCs 208 using separate and distinct processing units, L1 caches, and so on.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram of a partition unit 215 within one of the PPUs 202 of FIG. 2B, according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, partition unit 215 includes a L2 cache 350, a frame buffer (FB) DRAM interface 355, and a raster operations unit (ROP) 360. L2 cache 350 is a read/write cache that is configured to perform load and store operations received from crossbar unit 210 and ROP 360. Read misses and urgent writeback requests are output by L2 cache 350 to FB DRAM interface 355 for processing. Dirty updates are also sent to FB 355 for opportunistic processing. FB 355 interfaces directly with DRAM 220, outputting read and write requests and receiving data read from DRAM 220.

In graphics applications, ROP 360 is a processing unit that performs raster operations, such as stencil, z test, blending, and the like, and outputs pixel data as processed graphics data for storage in graphics memory. In some embodiments of the present invention, ROP 360 is included within each GPC 208 instead of partition unit 215, and pixel read and write requests are transmitted over crossbar unit 210 instead of pixel fragment data.

The processed graphics data may be displayed on display device 110 or routed for further processing by CPU 102 or by one of the processing entities within parallel processing subsystem 112. Each partition unit 215 includes a ROP 360 in order to distribute processing of the raster operations. In some embodiments, ROP 360 may be configured to compress z or color data that is written to memory and decompress z or color data that is read from memory.

Persons skilled in the art will understand that the architecture described in FIGS. 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B in no way limits the scope of the present invention and that the techniques taught herein may be implemented on any properly configured processing unit, including, without limitation, one or more CPUs, one or more multi-core CPUs, one or more PPUs 202, one or more GPCs 208, one or more graphics or special purpose processing units, or the like, without departing the scope of the present invention.

In embodiments of the present invention, it is desirable to use PPU 202 or other processor(s) of a computing system to execute general-purpose computations using thread arrays. Each thread in the thread array is assigned a unique thread identifier (“thread ID”) that is accessible to the thread during its execution. The thread ID, which can be defined as a one-dimensional or multi-dimensional numerical value controls various aspects of the thread's processing behavior. For instance, a thread ID may be used to determine which portion of the input data set a thread is to process and/or to determine which portion of an output data set a thread is to produce or write.

A sequence of per-thread instructions may include at least one instruction that defines a cooperative behavior between the representative thread and one or more other threads of the thread array. For example, the sequence of per-thread instructions might include an instruction to suspend execution of operations for the representative thread at a particular point in the sequence until such time as one or more of the other threads reach that particular point, an instruction for the representative thread to store data in a shared memory to which one or more of the other threads have access, an instruction for the representative thread to atomically read and update data stored in a shared memory to which one or more of the other threads have access based on their thread IDs, or the like. The CTA program can also include an instruction to compute an address in the shared memory from which data is to be read, with the address being a function of thread ID. By defining suitable functions and providing synchronization techniques, data can be written to a given location in shared memory by one thread of a CTA and read from that location by a different thread of the same CTA in a predictable manner. Consequently, any desired pattern of data sharing among threads can be supported, and any thread in a CTA can share data with any other thread in the same CTA. The extent, if any, of data sharing among threads of a CTA is determined by the CTA program; thus, it is to be understood that in a particular application that uses CTAs, the threads of a CTA might or might not actually share data with each other, depending on the CTA program, and the terms “CTA” and “thread array” are used synonymously herein.

FIG. 3C is a block diagram of the SPM 310 of FIG. 3A, according to one embodiment of the present invention. The SPM 310 includes an instruction L1 cache 370 that is configured to receive instructions and constants from memory via L1.5 cache 335. A warp scheduler and instruction unit 312 receives instructions and constants from the instruction L1 cache 370 and controls local register file 304 and SPM 310 functional units according to the instructions and constants. The SPM 310 functional units include N exec (execution or processing) units 302 and P load-store units (LSU) 303.

SPM 310 provides on-chip (internal) data storage with different levels of accessibility. Special registers (not shown) are readable but not writeable by LSU 303 and are used to store parameters defining each CTA thread's “position.” In one embodiment, special registers include one register per CTA thread (or per exec unit 302 within SPM 310) that stores a thread ID; each thread ID register is accessible only by a respective one of the exec unit 302. Special registers may also include additional registers, readable by all CTA threads (or by all LSUs 303) that store a CTA identifier, the CTA dimensions, the dimensions of a grid to which the CTA belongs, and an identifier of a grid to which the CTA belongs. Special registers are written during initialization in response to commands received via front end 212 from device driver 103 and do not change during CTA execution.

A parameter memory (not shown) stores runtime parameters (constants) that can be read but not written by any CTA thread (or any LSU 303). In one embodiment, device driver 103 provides parameters to the parameter memory before directing SPM 310 to begin execution of a CTA that uses these parameters. Any CTA thread within any CTA (or any exec unit 302 within SPM 310) can access global memory through a memory interface 214. Portions of global memory may be stored in the L1 cache 320.

Local register file 304 is used by each CTA thread as scratch space; each register is allocated for the exclusive use of one thread, and data in any of local register file 304 is accessible only to the CTA thread to which it is allocated. Local register file 304 can be implemented as a register file that is physically or logically divided into P lanes, each having some number of entries (where each entry might store, e.g., a 32-bit word). One lane is assigned to each of the N exec units 302 and P load-store units LSU 303, and corresponding entries in different lanes can be populated with data for different threads executing the same program to facilitate SIMD execution. Different portions of the lanes can be allocated to different ones of the G concurrent thread groups, so that a given entry in the local register file 304 is accessible only to a particular thread. In one embodiment, certain entries within the local register file 304 are reserved for storing thread identifiers, implementing one of the special registers.

Shared memory 306 is accessible to all CTA threads (within a single CTA); any location in shared memory 306 is accessible to any CTA thread within the same CTA (or to any processing engine within SPM 310). Shared memory 306 can be implemented as a shared register file or shared on-chip cache memory with an interconnect that allows any processing engine to read from or write to any location in the shared memory. In other embodiments, shared state space might map onto a per-CTA region of off-chip memory, and be cached in L1 cache 320. The parameter memory can be implemented as a designated section within the same shared register file or shared cache memory that implements shared memory 306, or as a separate shared register file or on-chip cache memory to which the LSUs 303 have read-only access. In one embodiment, the area that implements the parameter memory is also used to store the CTA ID and grid ID, as well as CTA and grid dimensions, implementing portions of the special registers. Each LSU 303 in SPM 310 is coupled to a unified address mapping unit 352 that converts an address provided for load and store instructions that are specified in a unified memory space into an address in each distinct memory space. Consequently, an instruction may be used to access any of the local, shared, or global memory spaces by specifying an address in the unified memory space.

The L1 Cache 320 in each SPM 310 can be used to cache private per-thread local data and also per-application global data. In some embodiments, the per-CTA shared data may be cached in the L1 cache 320. The LSUs 303 are coupled to a uniform L1 cache 375, the shared memory 306, and the L1 cache 320 via a memory and cache interconnect 380. The uniform L1 cache 375 is configured to receive read-only data and constants from memory via the L1.5 Cache 335.

Graphics Pipeline Architecture

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of a graphics processing pipeline 400, that one or more of the PPUs 202 of FIG. 2 can be configured to implement, according to one embodiment of the present invention. For example, one of the SPMs 310 may be configured to perform the functions of one or more of a vertex processing unit 415, a geometry processing unit 425, and a fragment processing unit 460. The functions of data assembler 410, primitive assembler 420, rasterizer 455, and raster operations unit 465 may also be performed by other processing engines within a GPC 208 and a corresponding partition unit 215. Alternately, graphics processing pipeline 400 may be implemented using dedicated processing units for one or more functions.

Data assembler 410 processing unit collects vertex data for high-order surfaces, primitives, and the like, and outputs the vertex data, including the vertex attributes, to vertex processing unit 415. Vertex processing unit 415 is a programmable execution unit that is configured to execute vertex shader programs, lighting and transforming vertex data as specified by the vertex shader programs. For example, vertex processing unit 415 may be programmed to transform the vertex data from an object-based coordinate representation (object space) to an alternatively based coordinate system such as world space or normalized device coordinates (NDC) space. Vertex processing unit 415 may read data that is stored in L1 cache 320, parallel processing memory 204, or system memory 104 by data assembler 410 for use in processing the vertex data.

Primitive assembler 420 receives vertex attributes from vertex processing unit 415, reading stored vertex attributes, as needed, and constructs graphics primitives for processing by geometry processing unit 425. Graphics primitives include triangles, line segments, points, and the like. Geometry processing unit 425 is a programmable execution unit that is configured to execute geometry shader programs, transforming graphics primitives received from primitive assembler 420 as specified by the geometry shader programs. For example, geometry processing unit 425 may be programmed to subdivide the graphics primitives into one or more new graphics primitives and calculate parameters, such as plane equation coefficients, that are used to rasterize the new graphics primitives.

In some embodiments, geometry processing unit 425 may also add or delete elements in the geometry stream. Geometry processing unit 425 outputs the parameters and vertices specifying new graphics primitives to a viewport scale, cull, and clip unit 450. Geometry processing unit 425 may read data that is stored in parallel processing memory 204 or system memory 104 for use in processing the geometry data. Viewport scale, cull, and clip unit 450 performs clipping, culling, and viewport scaling and outputs processed graphics primitives to a rasterizer 455.

Rasterizer 455 scan converts the new graphics primitives and outputs fragments and coverage data to fragment processing unit 460. Additionally, rasterizer 455 may be configured to perform z culling and other z-based optimizations.

Fragment processing unit 460 is a programmable execution unit that is configured to execute fragment shader programs, transforming fragments received from rasterizer 455, as specified by the fragment shader programs. For example, fragment processing unit 460 may be programmed to perform operations such as perspective correction, texture mapping, shading, blending, and the like, to produce shaded fragments that are output to raster operations unit 465. Fragment processing unit 460 may read data that is stored in parallel processing memory 204 or system memory 104 for use in processing the fragment data. Fragments may be shaded at pixel, sample, or other granularity, depending on the programmed sampling rate.

Raster operations unit 465 is a processing unit that performs raster operations, such as stencil, z test, blending, and the like, and outputs pixel data as processed graphics data for storage in graphics memory. The processed graphics data may be stored in graphics memory, e.g., parallel processing memory 204, and/or system memory 104, for display on display device 110 or for further processing by CPU 102 or parallel processing subsystem 112. In some embodiments of the present invention, raster operations unit 465 is configured to compress z or color data that is written to memory and decompress z or color data that is read from memory.

Generating a Stencil Buffer Indicating Path Coverage

A path consists of zero or more sequences of connected path segment commands for line segments, Bèzier segments, and partial elliptical arcs. A stencil buffer indicating pixel coverage for filling or stroking a path may be generated. The stencil buffer is then used to cover the path, producing a rendered path that is filled and/or stroked. Different techniques are used to prepare the path before the stencil buffer can be generated. When the path will be filled, the path is decomposed into simple cubic Bezier segments and lower order segments. When the path will be stroked, the path is approximated by quadratic Bezier segments and lower order segments. These simple cubic Bezier segments, quadratic Bezier segments, and lower order segments that represent the path and geometry that is rendered to generate the stencil buffer can be generated from a path specification.

When a path is filled, cubic Bèzier segments pose a particular challenge when these segments are rendered into the stencil buffer to determine which framebuffer sample locations are within the filled region of the respective path. If not done carefully, multiple classes of cubic Bèzier segments can contribute incorrect winding number offsets to the net winding number for a particular framebuffer sample location. An incorrect winding number determination immediately leads to an incorrect determination of the rasterized filled region of said path. Decomposing each arbitrary cubic Bèzier in a path into one or more simple cubic Bèzier segments produces a geometry set that is suitable for rendering filled paths containing cubic Bèzier segments. Such decomposition is beneficial because it results in a robust determination of the filled region of a rendered path without tessellating the path. The path is divided into cubic Bèzier path segments that are each classified and further divided into simple cubic Bèzier path segments. Care must be taken to preserve the proper vertex winding order of each simple Bèzier cubic segment, split the original cubic Bèzier at the proper positions, and linearly interpolate texture coordinates according to the technique described by Loop and Blinn for use with a discard shader. The simple cubic Bèzier path segments along with lower order segments are then rasterized using a discard shader program to generate a stencil buffer indicating pixels that are inside of the path. In contrast, the discard shader technique described by Loop and Blinn fills the inside of the path by rendering the tessellated Bèzier curve segments using the discard shader to write directly to the color buffer.

Bèzier curves are defined by their control points. In the 2D content of path rendering, each control point is a 2D position. Curved path segments for a path may be generated by path commands for quadratic Bèzier curves, cubic Bèzier curves, and partial elliptical arcs.

A quadratic Bèzier curve is specified by 3 control points and a cubic Bèzier curve is specified by 4 control points. The QUADRATICTO command uses the terminal position of the prior command as its initial control point (x0,y0) and then 4 associated coordinates form the two new (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) control points. The quadratic Bèzier curve starts at (x0,y0) heading towards (x1,y1) and ends at (x2,y2) as if coming from (x1,y1). Despite (x1,y1) providing the initial tangent direction when starting from (x0,y0) and terminating at (x2,y2), the resulting curve does not pass through (x1,y1); for this reason, (x1,y1) is known as an extrapolating control point while (x0,y0) and (x2,y2) are known as interpolating control points. Quadratic Bèzier curves may be filled without tessellation manner, because non-degenerate quadratic Bèzier curves have no points of self-intersection and the segment curve does not intersect the line formed by the initial and terminal control points.

The CUBICTO command is similar to the QUADRATICTO command but generates a cubic Bèzier curve. Such a curve is specified by 4 control points. The CUMICTO command uses the terminal position of the prior command as its initial control point (x0,y0) and then 6 associated coordinates form the 3 new (x1,y1), (x2,y2), and (x3,y3) control points. The cubic Bèzier curve starts at (x0,y0) heading towards (x1,y1) and ends at (x3,y3) as if coming from (x2,y2). While a quadratic Bèzier curve has a single extrapolating control point, cubic Bèzier curves have two extrapolating control points, (x1,y1) and (x2,y2). A cubic Bèzier curve has the freedom, unlike a quadratic Bèzier curve, to specify arbitrary initial and terminal tangent directions for its end-points. This control makes cubic Bèzier curves popular with artists. This additional control comes from the curve being described by a third-order polynomial equation instead of a second-order equation in the case of a quadratic Bèzier curve (and first-order in the case of line segments). This additional polynomial degree provides the requisite freedom for a cubic Bèzier segment to non-trivially self-intersect itself or cross the line formed by the segment's initial and terminal control points. These conditions result in reversals of the local sense of “inside” and “outside” the path. In order for a tessellation-free path filling approach based on stencil counting of rasterized polygons to be robust when a discard shader is used to write a stencil buffer, such situations must be avoided.

FIG. 5A illustrates a simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500 of a path, according to one embodiment of the invention. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500 may be one of many segments that define a closed path loop. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500 starts at a first interpolating control point, segment base vertex 502 and ends at a second interpolating control point, segment base vertex 506. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500 has two extrapolating control points, control point 503 and control point 504. Parameters for the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500 are generated by linearly interpolating parameters that specify the cubic Bèzier path segment from which the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500 originated. A polygon, convex hull geometry 510 is constructed for the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500 such that each vertex of the convex hull geometry 510 is coincident with a control point of the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500. The 4-sided convex hull geometry 510 is defined by the segment base vertex 502, control point 503, control point 504, and segment base vertex 506 and has a winding order that is clockwise because the convex hull geometry 510 is front-facing.

An anchor vertex 501 is determined for the closed path loop (potentially a sub-path of the complete path containing multiple such path loops) containing the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 500. For clarity of illustration, FIG. 5A shows just a single path segment and not the closed loop within which the segments is a part. This loop would consist of one or more additional path segments looping from segment base vertex 506 and eventually connecting back to segment base vertex 502. Anchor geometry 505 is a triangle defined by the anchor vertex 501, segment base vertex 502, and segment base vertex 506 has a winding order that is consistent with the path segment 500. The winding order of the anchor geometry 505 is clockwise because the anchor geometry 505 is front-facing.

The anchor vertex 501 may be located anywhere within the 2D plane containing the path containing path segment 500. What matters is that every path segment residing on the path loop containing path segment 500 share the same anchor vertex. This shared anchor vertex for all the path loops' segments ensures the winding number counting performed through a rasterization process has a consistent neutral position from which to rasterize and count. A good choice for the anchor vertex location is any segment base vertex (such as 502 or 506) because that forces at least one anchor geometry triangle to be zero area such that it need not be rasterized. Additionally choosing an anchor vertex near the centroid of the closed path's filled region tends to minimize the overall rasterization processing.

A set of stencil values in a stencil buffer may be generated that indicates the pixels, or more generally framebuffer sample locations, that are within the path segment 500 by incrementing each stencil buffer value corresponding to pixels that are within the front-facing hull geometry 510 and incrementing each stencil buffer value corresponding to pixels that are within the front-facing anchor geometry 505. Likewise, if the hull geometry or anchor geometry was back-facing, the rasterization process would decrement each stencil buffer value corresponding to pixels within said geometry. When rendering the hull and anchor geometry, the vertices belonging to this geometry are subject to an arbitrary projective transformation so the sense of front- or back-facing in object space may be the opposite sense after vertex transformation into pixel space. In one embodiment, the ROP 360 (alternatively raster operations unit 465) performs the increments and decrements of stencil while the rasterizer 455 rasterizes the geometry.

In one embodiment, batches of hull geometry and anchor geometry are drawn together that mix front- and back-facing polygons such that two-sided stencil testing can increment and decrement the stencil based on each polygon's determined facingness. The color and depth writes are disabled during generation of the stencil buffer. Once the stencil buffer is complete, writes to the color buffer are enabled and the pixels that are inside of the path may be filled by using the stencil buffer to write the color buffer when a conservative bounding geometry that encloses a closed path including the path segment 500 is rendered. During this second rendering pass to cover the path, the stencil values can be restored to their value prior to writing of the stencil buffer in the first rendering pass. The bounding geometry is referred to as covering geometry and is also used when stroking a path using a stencil buffer. The technique of generating a stencil buffer for the path in a separate step from a covering step that fills or strokes the path based on the stencil buffer is referred to as a two-step “stencil, then cover” technique.

In order to fill only the portion of the hull geometry 510 that is inside of the path segment 500 (indicated by the fill pattern), values of the stencil buffer corresponding to the pixels that are located in the portion of the hull geometry 510 that is between the path segment 500 and the edges of the hull geometry 510 defined by segment base vertex 502, control point 503, control point 504, and the segment base vertex 506 should not be incremented or decremented. In other words, pixels within the hull geometry 510 and outside of the path segment 500 should be disabled. The parameters defining the path segment 500 may be linearly interpolated as texture map coordinates for each pixel within the hull geometry 510. The interpolated texture coordinates for each pixel may then be used to determine whether the pixel is inside the path segment 500. The technique of calculating texture coordinates to determine whether a pixel is inside of a path segment is described by Charles Loop and Jim Blinn (in Resolution Independent Curve Rendering using Programmable Graphics Hardware, ACM Transactions on Graphics, Volume 24, Issue 3, July 2005) and is summarized here.

Simple cubic and quadratic Bèzier segments may be processed by a fragment shader program to determine if each fragment or sample is inside or outside of the path segment. Rendering quadratic Bèzier path segments in this manner is straightforward. The shader program evaluates the following boolean expression depending on two texture coordinates (s,t): Q(s,t)=s ² >t If Q(s,t) is true, the sample should be discarded; otherwise the sample is within the quadratic Bèzier path segment and should be rendered.

Rendering cubic Bèzier path segments is more complex. The fragment shader program evaluates the following boolean expression depending on three texture coordinates (s,t,r): C(s,t,r)=s ³ >tr

If C(s,t,r) is true, the sample should be discarded; otherwise the sample is within the cubic Bèzier path segment 500 and should be rendered. Computing the texture coordinates needed for the cubic Bèzier path segment 500 involves classifying the topology of the path (serpentine, cusp, loop, or a degenerate quadratic, line, or point).

Rendering partial elliptical arcs is similar. The fragment shader program evaluates the following boolean expression depending on two texture coordinates (s,t): C(s,t,r)=s ² +t ²>1 If C(s,t) is true, the sample should be discard; otherwise the same is within the partial elliptical arc segment and should be rendered. Computing the texture coordinates needed for the partial elliptical arc segment involves mapping the segment to sub-arc of a canonical circle of radius 1 centered at the origin.

The technique described by Loop and Blinn assumes that the interior of paths has been tessellated so that Bèzier path segments lie only on the boundary of the path. As previously explained, tessellation is burdensome in terms of both performance and the amount of data that is generated. In order to avoid tessellation of the interior of the path, a new technique is used that characterizes the topology of the cubic Bèzier path segments and divides the cubic Bèzier path segments into simple cubic Bèzier path segments based on the characterization of each cubic Bèzier path segment. The efficient discard shader technique developed by Loop and Blinn is used to remove pixels that are outside of the simple cubic Bèzier path segments. In contrast with the new technique and the discard shader technique, Rueda et al. describe a technique that relies on a less efficient cubic Bèzier normalization requiring many more arithmetic operations for each cubic Bèzier curve that is tested against a pixel. Neither Loop and Blinn nor Rueda's technique addresses partial elliptical arcs.

Texture coordinates are associated with the vertices of the convex hull geometry and the texture coordinates are interpolated and used by a discard shader program to determine the pixels of the convex hull geometry 510 that are inside of the path segment 500. The discard shader program first discards any pixels that are outside of the path segment 500 based on the interpolated texture coordinates and then increments or decrements the stencil buffer values corresponding to the surviving pixels based on the winding order of the convex hull geometry 510. In one embodiment, stencil values are incremented for front-facing (clockwise winding) primitives and decremented for back-facing (counter-clockwise winding) primitives. In another embodiment, stencil values are decremented for front-facing (clockwise winding) primitives and incremented for back-facing (counter-clockwise winding) primitives. In yet another embodiment, the convention for front-facing is counter-clockwise while back-facing is clockwise. Writes to the color and depth buffer are disabled during execution of the discard shader.

A stencil shader is executed to render the anchor geometry 505 and, based on the winding order of the anchor geometry 505, values in the stencil buffer are incremented or decremented for pixels that are within the anchor geometry 505. The winding order of 505 is such that the direction of winding from 502 to 506 is the opposite direction as used for the convex hull geometry 510. In the FIG. 5A example, the convex hull geometry 510 winds clockwise from vertices 503 to 504 to 506 to 502. So the winding for anchor geometry 505 must wind 501 to 502 to 506 (opposite of 506 to 502). Writes to the color and depth buffer are disabled during execution of the stencil shader. The stencil shader may be executed before or after the discard shader.

FIG. 5B illustrates another path segment 520 that is also a simple Bèzier cubic path segment, according to one embodiment of the invention. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 520 starts at a first interpolating control point, segment base vertex 522 and ends at a second interpolating control point, segment base vertex 526. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 520 has two extrapolating control points, control point 523 and control point 524. Note that the control point 523 is inside of the path segment 520.

Parameters for the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 520 are generated by linearly interpolating parameters that specify the cubic Bèzier path segment from which the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 520 originated. A polygon, convex hull geometry 530 is constructed for the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 520 such that each vertex of the convex hull geometry 530 is coincident with a control point of the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 520. The 3-sided convex hull geometry 530 is defined by the segment base vertex 522, control point 524, and segment base vertex 526 and is front-facing. An anchor vertex 521 is determined for the closed path loop containing the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 520 and an anchor geometry 525 (triangle) is defined by the anchor vertex 521, the segment base vertex 526, and the segment base vertex 522. The anchor geometry 525 is also front-facing.

Texture coordinates are associated with the vertices of the convex hull triangle and the texture coordinates are interpolated and used by the discard shader program to determine the pixels of the convex hull geometry 530 that are inside of the path segment 520. The discard shader program first discards any pixels that are outside of the path segment 520 based on the interpolated texture coordinates and then updates the stencil buffer values corresponding to the surviving pixels based on the winding order of the convex hull geometry 530. The anchor geometry 525 is also rasterized though without requiring texture coordinates and without a discard shader so that, based on the winding order of the anchor geometry 525, values in the stencil buffer are updated for pixels that are within the anchor geometry 525. Writes to the color and depth buffer are disabled during execution of the discard shader and the stencil shader. In one embodiment, anchor polygons rasterize at a faster rate than shaded polygons, often double the peak rate for shaded polygons, because no attributes need to be interpolated, no shader execution need be initiated, and no color writes are necessary. This faster rate of stencil-only, shader-free rasterization for anchor polygons is advantageous because anchor polygons tend to perform more stencil updates overall compared to the hull geometry that is processed by discard shaders.

FIG. 5C illustrates another path segment 540 that is also a simple Bèzier cubic path segment, according to one embodiment of the invention. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 540 starts at a first interpolating control point, segment base vertex 542 and ends at a second interpolating control point, segment base vertex 546. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 540 has two extrapolating control points, control point 543 and control point 544.

Parameters for the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 540 are generated by linearly interpolating parameters that specify the cubic Bèzier path segment from which the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 540 originated. A polygon, hull geometry 550 is constructed for the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 540 such that each vertex of the hull geometry 550 is coincident with a control point of the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 540. The 4-sided hull geometry 550 is defined by the segment base vertex 542, control point 543, control point 544, and segment base vertex 546.

An anchor vertex 541 is determined for the closed path loop containing the simple cubic Bèzier path segment 540 and anchor geometry 545 with winding order consistent with the path segment 540 is defined by the anchor vertex 541, the segment base vertex 542, and the segment base vertex 546. The winding order of the convex hull geometry 550 is counter-clockwise and the winding order of the anchor geometry 545 is clockwise. Therefore, the stencil buffer is incremented by the front-facing anchor geometry 545 and decremented by the back-facing hull geometry 550 for a net change of zero. However only the top portion of hull geometry 550 above path segment 540 actually decrements the stencil buffer because the region of the hull geometry 550 below the path segment 540 is discarded by the stencil discard shared in this case. Therefore, the pixels within the anchor geometry 545 that are also below path segment 550 are incremented (and not decremented) in the stencil buffer.

Texture coordinates are associated with the vertices of the hull geometry 550 and the texture coordinates are interpolated and used by the discard shader program to determine the pixels of the convex hull geometry 550 that are inside of the path segment 540.

In more detail, the discard shader program then causes the stencil buffer to decrement for the surviving pixels based on the back-facing winding order of the convex hull geometry 550. Stencil-only rendering without a discard shader is then used to render the anchor geometry 545 and, based on the front-facing winding order of the anchor geometry 545, causes the stencil buffer to increment for pixels that are within the anchor geometry 545. The relative effect on the stencil buffer indicates that pixels bounded by the path segment 540 and segments having a common endpoint at the anchor vertex 541 and respective endpoints at the segment base vertex 542 and the segment base vertex 546 are all incremented by one. Once combined with all the path segments in the path, the net result is to displace the stencil buffer from its original value by the winding number of each pixel with respect to the complete path.

FIG. 5D illustrates the simple Bèzier cubic path segment 540 and a simple Bèzier cubic path segment 560 that form a closed path, according to one embodiment of the invention. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 560 starts at the segment base vertex 546 and ends at the segment base vertex 542. The simple cubic Bèzier path segment 560 has two extrapolating control points, control point 563 and control point 564. The convex hull geometry 570 is a quadrilateral winding counter-clockwise and defined by the segment base vertex 546, the control point 564, the control point 563, and the segment base vertex 542. The convex hull geometry 550 is also a quadrilateral winding counter-clockwise and defined by the segment base vertex 542, the control point 543, the control points 544, and the segment based vertex 546.

Texture coordinates computed using the technique described by Loop and Blinn are associated with the vertices of the convex hull geometries 550 and 570 and the texture coordinates are interpolated and used by the discard shader program to determine the pixels of the hull geometries 550 and 570 that are inside of the closed path including the path segment 560 and the path segment 540. The discard shader program discards the pixels between the path segment 540 and the edges of the hull geometry 550 starting at the segment base vertex 546, passing through the control point 544 and 543, and ending at the segment base vertex 542. The discard shader program then decrements the stencil buffer for the surviving pixels within the hull geometry 550 and 570 based on the similarly counter-clockwise winding order of the respective hull geometry 550 or 570. Stencil values corresponding to the surviving pixels that are inside of the path formed by the path segments 540 and 560 are decremented by the discard shader program. Importantly, the decrements, as well as any increments, perform modulo or wrapping arithmetic (rather than saturating arithmetic). This is crucial given the limited integer precision (typically 8 bits) of the stencil buffer. In this example, this means if the stencil buffer was initially cleared to zero, the result of these decrements to an 8-bit stencil buffer would be the value 255 resulting from modulo-256 arithmetic.

The treatment so far has ignored the anchor geometry in FIG. 5D. Stencil-only rasterization without discarding is then used to render the anchor geometry 545 and, based on the winding order of the anchor geometry 545, increments or decrements the stencil buffer for pixels that are within the anchor geometry 545. The winding order of the anchor geometry 545 for the path segment 540 is clockwise. The anchor geometry for the path segment 560 is coincident with the anchor geometry 545, but has a counter-clockwise winding order. Therefore, values of the stencil buffer corresponding to pixels in the anchor geometry 545 are incremented and decremented, producing a net stencil change of zero. In one embodiment, if identical anchor geometry except for opposite winding order is detected, rasterization of this geometry can be skipped. Due to the freedom to position the anchor vertex arbitrarily, another embodiment could position anchor vertex 541 coincident with either segment based vertex 542 or 546 resulting in both instances anchor geometry 545 having zero area. An embodiment could eliminate rasterization of any such zero area geometry.

After the hull geometries 550 and 570 and both of the anchor geometries 545 are rendered to generate the stencil buffer, the stencil buffer will indicate only the pixels that are inside of the path defined by the path segments 540 and 560. Additional details of a technique for decomposing a path into simple cubic Bèzier path segments is described in patent application Ser. No. 13/097,483 filed Apr. 29, 2011, and titled “Decomposing Cubic Bèzier Path Segments for Tessellation-Free Stencil Filling.”

As previously explained, a rendered path may be filled and/or stroked. Path stroking has an associated “stroke width” that defines the region that is included in the stroke when a circle having a diameter of the stroke width is moved along the path segment. The path segment is considered a generating curve and the circle generates an inside offset curve and an outside offset curve as the circle moves along the path segment. Mathematical computation of the boundary of such offset curves is difficult. Because stroking is an important operation for many application programs that produce 2D images, it is desirable to accelerate stroking operations. In one embodiment, a GPU, such as the PPU 202, may be used to perform functions to accelerate stroking operations. Importantly, tessellation of the path segments is avoided. Instead, a path is decomposed into quadratic Bèzier path segments or segments of lower complexity, e.g., arcs, line segments, and the like. The stroking operations are accelerated without determining or even approximating the boundary of the strokes (the inside and outside offset curves) that can be defined by high-order polynomials. Instead, computations are performed to determine whether or not discrete point locations are inside or outside of a particular quadratic Bezier stroke or stroke of lower complexity.

GPU-accelerated stroking techniques typically perform approximately 1 to 2 orders of magnitude more fragment processing operations per sample than filling of the paths. This relative expense is justified because it results in fewer approximations and a more compact and resolution-independent representation from which to render stroked paths. The observation that more rendered pixels are filled than stroked in typical path rendering scenes with both types of path rendering also helps balance the relatively higher per-sample cost of stroking to filling.

FIG. 6 illustrates a generating curve 600 that may be represented as a sequence of quadratic Bèzier path segments and stroked, according to one embodiment of the invention. Whether or not a 2D point P at (x,y) is contained in the stroke of a differentiable 2D curve segment C of the generating curve 500 depends on the minimum distance between a sample point P 620 and C. Assuming C is a parametric curve varying with t, the closest point Q=C(t_(min)) must satisfy the condition that the vector P−C(t) is normal to the curve but only when t_(min) is within the curved segment's domain. For Bèzier segments, this domain is the [0,1] parametric range. Furthermore to be within the stroke of the curve segment with a stroke width d, the Euclidean distance between P and Q must be less than or equal to the stroke radius r=d/2. The interior offset curve 610 is the interior boundary of the stoke region for the generating curve 600. For some cases there are multiple Q values, such as Q and Q′ as shown in FIG. 6.

The closer of points Q′ and Q to the sample point P 620 may be determined by measuring along the perpendiculars 615 and 625, respectively. Geometrically, the closest point must be perpendicular to the curve tangent C′(t). This condition flows from minimizing the squared-distance function F(t)=∥P−C(t)∥². The global minimum of F occurs when F′(t)=0. Analytically, this occurs when 0=C′(t)·(P−C(t))   (equation 1) There may be multiple solutions to this equation so, after discarding solutions outside the segment's parametric range, each solution must be plugged back into F(t) to determine the actual global minimum t_(min). P belongs to the segment's stroke if ∥F(t_(min))∥≦r, or more efficiently when r² is pre-computed, (P−C(t))·(P−C(t))≦r². Otherwise or if no solution is within the parametric range, P does not belong to the segment's stroke.

The aforementioned analysis applies to whether a point belongs to a single segment's stroke. In the case of a path consisting of multiple segments, a point belongs to the path's stroke if the point is within the stroke of any segment belonging to the path.

The tangent of a sub-path is not necessarily well-defined at junctions between path segments. So additional rules are needed to determine what happens at and in the vicinity of such junctions as well as what happens at the terminal (start and end) points of sub-paths. Therefore stroking specifies further stroking rules to handle these situations. A join style determines what happens at the junction between two connected path segments. Typical join styles are round, miter, and bevel. An end-cap style indicates what happens at the end points of open (non-closed) sub-paths. Typical end-cap styles are round, square, none, and triangle. If the sub-path is closed, the join style is used to connect the initial and terminal segments rather than using end caps.

Therefore, points may belong to the path's stroke based on additional end-cap and join-style point containment tests. Round end-cap and join-style tests depend on whether the point is within r units of the path's end-points or segment join points. The miter and bevel join-styles depend on the normalized tangent directions of the initial or terminal points of the path. The miter and bevel join-styles depend on the two normalized tangent directions when two path segments join at a segment join point. For a mitered join, if the cosine of the angle between the tangent directions exceeds the miter-limit, the miter is treated as either a bevel or truncated miter.

Point containment algorithms determine whether a point is “inside” or “outside” the boundary of a closed curve. The process of filling and stroking a path involves determining the set of samples contained within a closed path or the envelope of a path, respectively. Applying some point containment algorithm to each and every sample that is potentially within the boundary defined by the path or stroked boundary is fundamental to the process of stroking a rendered path.

Decomposing a path into quadratic Bèzier segments produces a geometry set that is suitable for stroking rendered paths containing higher-order Bèzier segments, such as cubic Bèzier segments, without tessellating the path into polygons. The path is divided into quadratic Bèzier path segments, arcs, and/or line segments. The quadratic Bèzier path segments, arcs, and line segments are then processed to determine whether or not points lie within the stroke region of each quadratic Bèzier path segment, arc, or line segment. Rather than computing the inside and outside offset curves, a function is evaluated for each point that may be within the stroke region that is bounded by the inside offset curve 610 and an outside offset curve. The function is specific to the point, so that each point has a respective function.

For each quadratic Bèzier path segment (including ones generated by approximating other curve segments), the stroking engine generates a conservative hull polygon that completely encloses a stroke region of the quadratic Bèzier path segment. The stroking engine then computes a set of derived values from each quadratic Bèzier path segment and the stroke width to facilitate an efficient computation of nearest points on the quadratic Bèzier path segment to a point that may be within the stroke region. When a GPU is used to perform the stroking operations, the derived values may be stored in graphics memory and ordered to correspond with their respective Bèzier path segment's convex hull geometry. In one embodiment, the derived values are stored as data within a texture accessible by a GPC 208 through a texture unit 315.

In addition to the hull geometry bounding the quadratic Bèzier path segments, the stroking engine also collects or generates a set of polygonal geometry for any square or triangular end-caps or mitered or beveled join styles. The stroking engine also collects or generates a set of polygonal geometry for rounded stroking with associated texture coordinates to generate round end-caps, join styles, and hemi-circles for cusps of curved segments converted to line segments. This geometry may include texture coordinates indicating vertex position relative to the junction, end-point, or cusp. The details of a technique for performing point containment for quadratic Bèzier segments to generate a stencil buffer indicating samples that are within a stroke region of a rendered path is described in patent application Ser. No. 13/097,993 filed Apr. 29, 2011, and titled “Point Containment for Quadratic Bèzier Strokes.”

A technique for decomposing a path into quadratic Bèzier segments is described in patent application Ser. No. 13/098,102 filed Apr. 29, 2011, and titled “Approximation of Stroked Higher-Order Curved Segments by Quadratic Bèzier Curve Segments.” A technique for converting dashed strokes into quadratic Bèzier segments is described in patent application Ser. No. 13/081,325 filed Apr. 29, 2011, and titled “Conversion of Dashed Strokes into Quadratic Bèzier Curve Segment Sequences.”

Covering the Path Using a Stencil Buffer

A stencil buffer may be generated indicating pixels inside of a path to be filled or pixels inside of a stroke region of a path to be stroked. Returning to FIG. 5A, after the stencil buffer is updated for all of the path segments of a path to be filled, the resulting stencil buffer indicates the pixels that are inside of the closed path that includes the path segment 500. Writes to the color buffer are enabled and a fill shader program is then executed to fill the inside of the closed path using the generated stencil buffer while rendering a covering geometry. The stencil buffer may be cleared for each pixel as a fill color is written to the color buffer for the respective pixel. Clearing the stencil value of each pixel is straightforward to accomplish with standard stencil operations such as Zero or Replace. The covering geometry may be a set of polygons, including a polygon defined by all of the vertices of both the convex hull geometry 510 and anchor geometry 505. Alternatively, the covering geometry may be a single polygon that encloses the entire closed path to be filled. The covering geometry should conservatively enclose the path to be filled.

Similarly, after the stencil buffer is updated for all of the path segments of a closed path that includes path segment 520 shown in FIG. 5B and path segment 540 shown in FIG. 5C, the resulting stencil buffer indicates the pixels that are inside of the closed path that includes the path segments 520 and 540. A fill shader program is then executed by rasterizing one or more polygons conservatively covering the path to fill the inside of the closed path using the generated stencil buffer. During this rasterization, the color buffer is updated for pixels indicated by the stencil buffer to be within the fill of the path; additionally stencil operations can restore the stencil buffer to its state prior to rasterizing the path's fill into the stencil buffer.

Returning to FIG. 5D, the generated stencil buffer indicates only the pixels that are inside of the path defined by the path segments 540 and 560. The generated stencil buffer may then be used to fill the pixels that are inside of the path segment 540, e.g., pixels between the path segment 540 and the segment bounded by the segment base vertex 542 and the segment base vertex 546. A covering geometry that is a quadrilateral defined by all of the vertices of the path defined by the path segments 540 and 560, e.g., the segment base vertices 542 and 546 and control points 543, 544, 563, and 564, may be rendered to write the color buffer based on the stencil buffer. The covering geometry should conservatively enclose the path to be filled. Rasterization of the covering geometry can test the stencil buffer. Assuming the stencil buffer was initially cleared to zero, the stencil test can discard updates to any pixels with a corresponding stencil value of zero, but otherwise update non-zero pixels. In the case of FIG. 5D, the region bounded by path segments 540 and 560 has a resulting stencil value of 255 so this region will be updated. Along with updating the color buffer, this covering rasterization can zero the non-zero stencil values so subsequent paths can be rendered in a similar manner.

When a path is stroked, path geometry is rendered to generate the stencil buffer that indicates the samples that are inside of the stroke region for the rendered path. The path geometry includes conservative bounding hull geometry, end-cap geometry, and join geometry. To fill the stroke region, covering geometry is rendered based the stencil buffer. The covering geometry should conservatively enclose the path to be stroked. Rasterization of the covering geometry can test the stencil buffer. Assuming the stencil buffer was initially cleared to zero, the stencil test can discard updates to any pixels with a corresponding stencil value of zero, but otherwise update non-zero pixels.

Path Rendering

In most 3D graphics rendering systems, stenciling and covering are performed in a single rendering pass. Coupling the stenciling step with the covering step makes sense when the operations required determining what samples are covered by a primitive are bounded and inexpensive. For example, determining the coverage of a triangle requires evaluating exactly three edge equations and determining the sample position satisfies all three inequalities. In contrast, filling a path primitive involves an unbounded number of path segments to consider. Path stroking also requires processing path primitives with an unbounded number of segments, but in addition, the number of operations to determine point containment even of a simple quadratic Bèzier segment is approximately two orders of magnitude more than required for point containment by a triangle.

Path rendering systems also assume that blending (used for both opacity and coverage) is performed once-and-only-once for a covered sample. At least one bit of state per sample is required to track whether or not a primitive has updated that sample. Additionally, when filling or stroking a path, point containment should be performed per-sample while shading can typically be performed at the per-pixel rate. The stencil test is a per-sample test. Whereas programmable per-fragment color shading typically (meaning most efficiently) runs per-pixel. Acceptable path rendering quality typically requires more than one point containment test per pixel. While the point containment determination may then be performed many times per pixel, it is advantageous to limit the shading computations in the cover step to one shading computation to pixel, particularly when complex shading computations are involved. Actual performance results from two-step GPU-accelerated path rendering, with the stencil generation separated from the path covering, indicate that the two-step technique is substantially faster than other known path rendering systems.

By decoupling the stencil step for path point containment from the cover step for path shading, the cover step can apply an arbitrary shading computation implemented by a standard programmable shader implemented in a standard GPU shading language such as Cg, GLSL, or HLSL or fixed-function operations. This is advantageous because these shaders for covering are no different from the shaders used for conventional 3D shaded rendering. In existing path rendering systems, shading of paths is typically limited to fixed operations that are distinct and different from the programmable shading allowed for 3D rendering. Existing shaders and their extensive systems for compilation and specification can be advantageously used for path rendering as a result of this two-step approach that separates generation of the stencil buffer from covering of the path.

Importantly, the two-step technique takes advantage of the many efficient and parallel units within the GPU. In practice, this means taking advantage of the following performance features of modern GPUs. Some of these performance features include double-rate depth-stencil-only rendering, per-sample shading, bandwidth-efficient stencil operations, two-sided stencil testing, centroid or per-sample interpolation, early (pre-shading) depth-stencil testing, per-tile depth-stencil culling, and the like. Modern GPUs also pipeline multiple render batches to execute them in parallel so multiple stencil and cover steps can be operating within the logical graphics processing pipeline 400 simultaneously while preserving the effect of sequential rendering of the paths.

Before the stencil buffer is rendered, path geometry is generated to fill or stroke the path. The path geometry is then input to a graphics processing pipeline, such as the graphics processing pipeline 400. As previously described in conjunction with FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C, and 5D, the path to fill is broken down into path segments, cubic Bezier path segments are analyzed, simple cubic Bezier path segments are generated, and anchor geometry and convex hull is generated for the path to be filled. Similarly, the path to stroke is broken down into path segments, higher-order segments are approximated by quadratic Bezier segments, and conservative bounding hull, end-cap, and join geometry is generated for the path to be stroked. The generated geometry is referred to as path geometry. In addition to the path geometry, the covering geometry is also generated.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of graphics processing pipeline operations that one or more of the PPUs of FIG. 2B can be configured to implement when filling and/or stroking paths using the two-step technique, according to one embodiment of the invention. The path geometry for filling or stroking a rendered path is input to a vertex and geometry processing units 705.

As previously explained, the path geometry is resolution-independent meaning that the filled or stroked path can be rasterized under arbitrary projective transformations without needing to revisit the construction of the path geometry. This resolution-independent property is unlike geometry sets built through a process of tessellating curved regions into line segments; in such circumstances, sufficient magnification of the filled path would reveal the tessellated underlying nature of such a tessellated geometry set. Additionally, the path geometry is compact meaning that the number of bytes required to represent the filled or stroked path is linear with the number of path segments in the original path. This property does not generally hold for tessellated versions of filled paths where the process of subdividing curved edges and introducing tessellated triangles typically bloats out the resulting geometry set considerably.

The vertex and geometry processing units 705 may include one or more of the data assembler 410, the vertex processing unit 415, the primitive assembler 420, the geometry processing unit 425, and the viewport scale, cull, and clip unit 450 shown in FIG. 4. The vertex and geometry processing units 705 may be configured to transform the path geometry (anchor and convex hull geometry for filling and end-cap, join, and conservative bounding hull geometry for stroking) into pixel space.

The 2D (x,y) position of each vertex in the path geometry set can be treated as a 3D (x,y,0) position (using zero for the z component) such that a linearly varying depth values may be generated after projective transformation, and then rasterized to produce per-sample depth values suitable for conventional depth testing during the stencil step, however only the stencil buffer (not the depth buffer) is written during the stencil step so all the depth test can do is discard the stencil update. Similarly depth values can be generated from the covering geometry. Covering geometry depth values can update the depth value when indicated by the prior step's stencil results, subject to depth testing. When depth testing paths in this manner, it is advantageous to apply a polygon offset to the depth values in the stencil step in order to disambiguate the depth values from previously rendered co-planar paths. This approach allows path rendering to mix advantageously with conventional 3D rendering in a manner unavailable to prior art for path rendering

The rasterizer 455 performs coarse and fine rasterization to determine the sample coverage of the path geometry (pixel or sub-pixel samples). The rasterizer includes determination, when filling, of whether the primitive being rasterized is front- or back-facing. This determination may be used subsequently to determine whether to increment or decrement stencil values. When geometry for convex hull geometry and round end-caps is rasterized, the fragment processing unit 460 is configured to execute the discard shader to determine whether the rasterized fragments should be discarded. If a fragment is discarded, no further processing occurs; in particular, the fragment's stencil value is not disturbed. Geometry for anchor triangles, non-round join styles, and non-round end caps does not require a discard shader. Implementations may bypass the shader execution for such these primitives to improve rasterization performance and/or reduce overall power consumption. The raster operations unit 465 performs stencil testing and, if configured, depth testing. No further processing or buffer update occurs for fragments that are discarded by the fragment processing unit 460, or which fail the stencil test, or which fail the depth test (if enabled). Deciding the stencil test may require reading stencil buffer 700; deciding the stencil test may require reading the depth buffer 715. If a fragment is not otherwise discarded, raster operations unit 465 performs stencil updates. To fill the path, the stencil values corresponding to samples in the stencil buffer may be incremented and decremented based on the front- or back-facing winding direction of the path geometry determined by rasterizer 455. Alternatively to fill the path, the stencil values corresponding to the samples in the stencil buffer may be inverted. To stroke the path, the values corresponding to samples in the stencil buffer are set to a designated stencil reference value when the sample is within the stroke region. The raster operations unit 465 writes the stencil buffer 700 Conventional operations to control rasterization are available during generation of the stencil buffer, e.g., clip planes, scissoring, depth offset, window ownership testing, and the like.

Covering geometry (geometry fully covering the path) is input to cover the path based on the stencil buffer. The vertex and geometry processing units 705 may be configured to transform the covering geometry into pixel space. Importantly, the same transform that was applied to the path geometry to generate the stencil buffer is applied to the covering geometry to cover the path. As described previously and as done for the stencil step, the covering geometry is transformed and rasterized to produce per-sample depth values that can be used for depth testing and to update the depth buffer.

The rasterizer 455 performs coarse and fine rasterization to determine the sample coverage of the covering geometry (pixel or sub-pixel samples). The raster operations unit 465 is configured to perform stencil operations logically subsequent to shading operations (performed by the fragment processing unit 460). When covering the path, the raster operations unit 465 is configured to read the stencil buffer and use a stencil test to discard samples that are not inside of the path when filling or inside of the stroke region when stroking. When filling a path, rasterized samples having a corresponding stencil value in the stencil buffer 700 that is equal to the neutral value (value that is typically used to clear the stencil buffer) are discarded by the stencil test performed by the raster operations unit 465. The neutral value is written to the stencil buffer 700 after the corresponding stencil value is read. When stroking a path, samples having a corresponding stencil value in the stencil buffer 700 that are not equal to the reference stencil value (typically the value that is written to the stencil buffer for samples that are within the stroke region during the stencil step) are discarded. The neutral value is written to the stencil buffer 700 after the corresponding stencil value is read. After all of the covering geometry has been stencil tested, all of the values in the stencil buffer 700 have been reset to their neutral value. When the two-step technique is used to render of a sequence of paths, the stencil is reset as the stencil is applied to the covering geometry. Clearing every sample in a stencil buffer as a separate operation can be expensive, so performing the clear as part of the path covering operation is advantageous. This approach to resetting stencil values in stencil buffer 700 to their neutral state also ensures color values in image buffer 710 are updated once-and-only-once per rendering of a given path, consistent with standard path rendering behavior.

The fragments to be filled or stroked are shaded by the fragment processing unit 460. Standard path rendering modes are available during covering of the path, e.g., constant color, linear gradients, radial gradients, and the like. Advantageously, the fragment processing unit 460 can perform arbitrary programmable shading computations, matching those available to 3D rendering such as texturing, bump mapping, noise generation, and shadow mapping. The raster operations unit 465 writes the image buffer 710 and may also be configured to write depth values computed by the rasterizer 455 and/or fragment processing unit 460 to a depth buffer 715 and perform depth testing. When consistent with the order of operations described, an implementation may advantageously perform the stencil and/or depth tests normally performed by the raster operations unit 465 prior to shading operations performed by fragment processing unit 460. This reordering is not possible if the fragment shader might discard fragments or compute an alternative depth value to be used for depth testing. Conventional operations to control rasterization are available while rendering the covering geometry, e.g., clip planes, scissoring, depth offset, window ownership testing, and the like.

FIG. 8A is a flow diagram of method steps for rendering paths, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Although the method steps are described in conjunction with the systems of FIGS. 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 3C, 4, and 7, persons skilled in the art will understand that any system configured to perform the method steps, in any order, is within the scope of the invention. The CPU 102 or parallel processing subsystem 112 may be configured to render paths.

At step 805 a path object is received. At step 810 the path is decomposed into simple cubic Bezier path segments for filling and/or into quadratic Bezier for stroking. Decomposing complex cubic Bezier path segments of filled paths into simple cubic Bezier path segments is described in patent application Ser. No. 13/097,483 filed Apr. 29, 2011, and titled “Decomposing Cubic Bèzier Path Segments for Tessellation-Free Stencil Filling.” A technique for decomposing a path containing higher-order stroked segments into quadratic Bèzier segments is described in patent application Ser. No. 13/098,102 filed Apr. 29, 2011, and titled “Approximation of Stroked Higher-Order Curved Segments by Quadratic Bèzier Curve Segments.”

At step 815 path geometry is generated for filling and/or stroking the path. A specification of the path may be generated by an application program, driver program, or as circuitry configured to perform method steps 815. At step 825 the specification of the path including the path geometry is provided to one or more of the PPUs 202 or another processor and the path geometry are rendered to generate a stencil buffer 700 indicating samples of the path to be covered. Step 825 corresponds to the stencil path operation 701 in FIG. 7. At step 830 covering geometry for the path is generated. At step 835 the covering geometry is rendered with stencil testing enabled to determine surviving pixels that are covered by the path based on the stencil buffer 700. At step 840 the surviving pixels are shaded to produce a rendered image of the path. Steps 835 and 840 correspond to the cover path of operation 702 in FIG. 7. The rendered image may illustrate the path with stroking and/or filling.

FIG. 8B is a flow diagram of method steps for executing commands that render paths by first generating a stencil buffer and then covering the path, according to one embodiment of the present invention. At step 850 a path is encoded. At step 855 the stencil buffer 700 is cleared to a neutral stencil value. At step 860 a first command, e.g., path stencil generation command, that specifies the encoded path and generates the stencil buffer 700 indicating samples that are inside of the path by rendering path geometry corresponding to the path is executed. Such stencil samples inside the path will have stencil value other than the neutral value after step 860. At step 865 stencil testing is configured to cover the path based on the generated stencil buffer 700. At step 870 a second command, e.g., a path cover command, that covers the path based on the stencil buffer by rendering covering geometry corresponding to the path to produce a rendered image is executed. Step 870 with stencil testing properly configured by step 865 will update the image buffer 710 with a shaded color and reset the stencil buffer 700 to the neutral value for all sample positions with a stencil value not the neutral value. Because of the way the stencil buffer 700 is reset back to the neutral value for all stencil values not the neutral value, step 855 is typically only necessary on the initial rendering of a path. The first and the second commands may be provided by an API, such as OpenGL.

Path Rendering Programming Interface

Conventional OpenGL supports rendering images (pixel rectangles and bitmaps) and simple geometric primitives (points, lines, polygons). In the following examples, path rendering operations are programmed using OpenGL extensions.

An NV_path_rendering extension adds a new rendering paradigm, known as path rendering, for rendering filled and stroked paths. With the NV_path_rendering extension, path rendering becomes a first-class rendering mode within the graphics system that can be arbitrarily mixed with existing rendering and can take advantage of existing mechanisms for texturing, programmable shading, and per-fragment operations. Graphics APIs other than OpenGL may also be extended to accelerate path rendering with the invention's two-step “stencil, then cover” method.

Prior applications programming interfaces such as OpenVG, Direct2D, Cairo, Skia, and Quartz 2D provide methods for rendering paths, but these methods consist of a single-step “draw path” command rather than the decoupled two-step method for rendering paths as a “stencil” step and a “cover” step. In contrast, the two-step “stencil, then cover” approach is advantageous for being efficient to map to a GPU, fast and robust because it is tessellation-free, and flexible in its ability to integrate with existing 3D graphics APIs such as OpenGL including interoperability with programmable shaders and depth testing.

Unlike geometric primitive rendering, paths are specified on a 2D (non-projective) plane rather than in 3D (projective) space. Even though the path is defined in a 2D plane, every path can be transformed into 3D clip space allowing for 3D view frustum & user-defined clipping, depth offset, and depth testing in the same manner as geometric primitive rendering.

Both geometric primitive rendering and path rendering support rasterization of edges defined by line segments; however, path rendering also allows path segments to be specified by Bezier (cubic or quadratic) curves or partial elliptical arcs. This allows path rendering to define truly curved primitive boundaries unlike the straight edges of line and polygon primitives. Whereas geometric primitive rendering requires convex polygons for well-defined rendering results, path rendering allows concave and curved outlines to be specified. These paths are even allowed to self-intersect.

When filling closed paths, the winding of paths (counterclockwise or clockwise) determines whether pixels are inside or outside of the path. Paths can also be stroked whereby, conceptually, a fixed-width brush is pulled along the path such that the brush remains orthogonal to the gradient of each path segment. Samples within the sweep of this brush are considered inside the stroke of the path.

The NV_path_rendering extension supports path rendering through a sequence of three operations: path specification, path stenciling, and path covering. Path specification is the process of creating and updating a path object consisting of a set of path commands and a corresponding set of 2D vertices. Path commands can be specified explicitly from path command and coordinate data, parsed from a string based on standard grammars for representing paths, or specified by a particular glyph of standard font representations. Also new paths can be specified by weighting one or more existing paths so long as all the weighted paths have consistent command sequences. Each path object contains zero or more subpaths specified by a sequence of line segments, partial elliptical arcs, and (cubic or quadratic) Bezier curve segments. Each path may contain multiple subpaths that can be closed (forming a contour) or open.

Path stenciling is the process of updating the stencil buffer based on a path's coverage transformed into window space. The stencil buffer generated by path stenciling can determine either the filled or stroked coverage of a path. Stenciling a stroked path supports all the standard embellishments for path stroking such as end caps, join styles, miter limits, dashing, and dash caps. These stroking properties specified are parameters of path objects.

Path covering is the process of emitting simple (convex & planar) geometry that (conservatively) “covers” the path's sample coverage in the stencil buffer. During path covering, stencil testing can be configured to discard fragments not within the actual coverage of the path as determined by prior path stenciling. Path covering can cover either the filled or stroked coverage of a path. To render a path object into the color buffer, an application specifies a path object and then uses a two-step rendering process. First, the path object is stenciled whereby the path object's stroked or filled coverage is rasterized into the stencil buffer in the manner shown in the stencil path operation 701 in FIG. 7. Second, the path object is covered whereby conservative covering geometry for the path is transformed and rasterized with stencil testing configured to test against the coverage information written to the stencil buffer in the first step so that only fragments covered by the path are written during this second step in the manner shown in the cover path operation 702 in FIG. 7. Also during this second step written pixels typically have their stencil value reset (so there's no need for clearing the stencil buffer between rendering each path).

An example of specifying and then rendering a five-point star and a heart as a path using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) path description syntax is shown in TABLE 1.

TABLE 1 GLuint pathObj = 42; const char *svgPathString = // star “M100,180 L40,10 L190,120 L10,120 L160,10 z” // heart “M300 300 C 100 400,100 200,300 100,500 200,500 400,300 300Z”; glPathStringNV(pathObj, GL_PATH_FORMAT_SVG_NV, (GLsizei)strlen(svgPathString),svgPathString);

Alternatively applications oriented around the PostScript imaging model can use the PostScript user path syntax instead, as shown in TABLE 2.

TABLE 2 const char *psPathString = // star “100 180 moveto” “ 40 10 lineto 190 120 lineto 10 120 lineto 160 10 lineto closepath” // heart “ 300 300 moveto” “ 100 400 100 200 300 100 curveto” “ 500 200 500 400 300 300 curveto closepath”; glPathStringNV(pathObj, GL_PATH_FORMAT_PS_NV, (GLsizei)strlen(psPathString),psPathString); The PostScript path syntax also supports compact and precise binary encoding and includes PostScript-style circular arcs. Or the path's command and coordinates can be specified explicitly, as shown in TABLE 3.

TABLE 3 static const GLubyte pathCommands[10] = { GL_MOVE_TO_NV, GL_LINE_TO_NV, GL_LINE_TO_NV, GL_LINE_TO_NV, GL_LINE_TO_NV, GL_CLOSE_PATH_NV, ‘M’, ‘C’, ‘C’, ‘Z’ }; // character aliases static const GLshort pathCoords[12][2] = { {100, 180}, {40, 10}, {190, 120}, {10, 120}, {160, 10}, {300,300}, {100,400}, {100,200}, {300,100}, {500,200}, {500,400}, {300,300} }; glPathCommandsNV(pathObj, 10, pathCommands, 24, GL_SHORT, pathCoords); The examples in TABLES 1, 2, and 3 correspond to step step 850 in FIG. 8B.

Before rendering to a window with a stencil buffer, clear the stencil buffer to the neutral value of zero (corresponding to step 855 in FIG. 8B) and the color buffer to black, as shown in TABLE 4.

TABLE 4 glClearStencil(0); glClearColor(0,0,0,0); glStencilMask(~0); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_STENCIL_BUFFER_BIT);

Use an orthographic path-to-clip-space transform to map the [0 . . . 500]×[0 . . . 400] range of the star's path coordinates to the [−1 . . . 1] clip space cube, as shown in TABLE 5.

TABLE 5 glMatrixLoadIdentityEXT(GL_PROJECTION); glMatrixLoadIdentityEXT(GL_MODELVIEW); glMatrixOrthoEXT(GL_MODELVIEW, 0, 500, 0, 400, −1, 1);

Stencil the path using the following instruction:

glStencilFillPathNV(pathObj, GL_COUNT_UP_NV, 0x1F); The 0×1F mask means the counting uses modulo-32 arithmetic. In principle the star's path is simple enough (having a maximum winding number of 2) that modulo-4 arithmetic would be sufficient so the mask could be 0×3. Or a mask of all 1's (˜0) could be used to count with all available stencil bits. This instruction corresponds to step 860 in FIG. 8B.

Now that the coverage of the star and the heart has been rasterized into the stencil buffer, cover the path with a non-zero fill style (indicated by the GL_NOTEQUAL stencil function with a zero reference value), as shown in TABLE 6.

TABLE 6 glEnable(GL_STENCIL_TEST); glStencilFunc(GL_NOTEQUAL, 0, 0x1F); glStencilOp(GL_KEEP, GL_KEEP, GL_ZERO); glColor3f(1,1,0); // yellow glCoverFillPathNV(pathObj, GL_BOUNDING_BOX_NV); The first three commands in TABLE 6 correspond to step 865 in FIG. 8B while the last two commands correspond to step 870. The result is a yellow star (with a filled center) to the left of a yellow heart.

The GL_ZERO stencil operation ensures that any covered samples (meaning those with non-zero stencil values) are zeroed when the path cover is rasterized. This allows subsequent paths to be rendered without clearing the stencil buffer again.

A similar two-step rendering process can draw a white outline over the star and heart. Before rendering, configure the path object with desirable path parameters for stroking. Specify a wider 6.5-unit stroke and the round join style using the following instructions:

glPathParameteriNV(pathObj, GL_PATH_JOIN_STYLE_NV, GL_ROUND_NV); glPathParameterfNV(pathObj, GL_PATH_STROKE_WIDTH_NV, 6.5);

Now stencil the path's stroked coverage into the stencil buffer, setting the stencil to 0×1 for all stencil samples within the transformed path using the following instruction corresponding to step 860 in FIG. 8B.

glStencilStrokePathNV(pathObj, 0x1, ~0);

Cover the path's stroked coverage (with a hull this time instead of a bounding box; the choice doesn't really matter here) while stencil testing that writes white to the color buffer and again zero the stencil buffer using the following instructions corresponding to step 870 in FIG. 8B (stencil testing is already properly configured by the commands in TABLE 6 so an explicit step 865 is unnecessary):

glColor3f(1,1,1); // white glCoverStrokePathNV(pathObj, GL_CONVEX_HULL_NV);

In this example, constant color shading is used but the application can specify their own arbitrary shading and/or blending operations, whether with Cg compiled to fragment program assembly, GLSL, or fixed-function fragment processing.

More complex path rendering is possible such as clipping one path to another arbitrary path. This is because stencil testing (as well as depth testing, depth bound test, clip planes, and scissoring) can restrict path stenciling. The word “OpenGL” can now be rendered atop the star and heart.

First create a sequence of path objects for the glyphs for the characters in “OpenGL” as shown in TABLE 7.

TABLE 7 GLuint glyphBase = glGenPathsNV(6); const unsigned char *word = “OpenGL”; const GLsizei wordLen = (GLsizei)strlen(word); const GLfloat emScale = 2048; // match TrueType convention GLuint templatePathObject = ~0; // Non-existant path object glPathGlyphsNV(glyphBase, GL_SYSTEM_FONT_NAME_NV, “Helvetica”, GL_BOLD_BIT_NV, wordLen, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, word, GL_SKIP_MISSING_GLYPH_NV, templatePathObject, emScale); glPathGlyphsNV(glyphBase, GL_SYSTEM_FONT_NAME_NV, “Arial”, GL_BOLD_BIT_NV, wordLen, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, word, GL_SKIP_MISSING_GLYPH_NV, templatePathObject, emScale); glPathGlyphsNV(glyphBase, GL_STANDARD_FONT_NAME_NV, “Sans”, GL_BOLD_BIT_NV, wordLen, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, word, GL_USE_MISSING_GLYPH_NV, templatePathObject, emScale);

Glyphs are loaded for three different fonts in priority order: Helvetica first, then Arial, and if neither can be loaded, use the standard sans-serif font. If a prior glPathGlyphsNV is successful and specifies the path object range, the subsequent glPathGlyphsNV commands silently avoid re-specifying the already existent path objects.

Now query the kerned glyph separations for the word “OpenGL” and accumulate a sequence of horizontal translations advancing each successive glyph by its kerning distance with the following glyph shown in TABLE 8.

TABLE 8 GLfloat xtranslate[6+1]; // wordLen+1 glGetPathSpacingNV(GL_ACCUM_ADJACENT_PAIRS_NV, wordLen+1, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, “\000\001\002\003\004\005\005”, // repeat last // letter twice glyphBase, 1.0f, 1.0f, GL_TRANSLATE_X_NV, xtranslate);

Next determine the font-wide vertical minimum and maximum for the font face by querying the per-font metrics of any one of the glyphs from the font face using the instructions shown in TABLE 9.

TABLE 9 GLfloat yMinMax[2]; glGetPathMetricRangeNV(GL_FONT_Y_MIN_BOUNDS_NV|GL_FONT_Y_MAX_(—) BOUNDS_NV, glyphBase, /*count*/1, 2*sizeof(GLfloat),yMinMax);

Use an orthographic path-to-clip-space transform to map the word's bounds to the [−1 . . . 1] clip space cube with the following instructions:

glMatrixLoadIdentityEXT(GL_PROJECTION); glMatrixOrthoEXT(GL_MODELVIEW,0, xtranslate[6], yMinMax[0], yMinMax[1],−1, 1);

Stencil the filled paths of the sequence of glyphs for “OpenGL”, each transformed by the appropriate 2D translations for spacing with the following instruction.

glStencilFillPathInstancedNV(6, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, “\000\001\002\003\004\005”,glyphBase,GL_PATH_FILL_MODE_NV, 0xFF,GL_TRANSLATE_X_NV, xtranslate);

Cover the bounding box union of the glyphs with 50% gray using the instructions shown in TABLE 10.

TABLE 10 glEnable(GL_STENCIL_TEST); glStencilFunc(GL_NOTEQUAL, 0, 0xFF); glStencilOp(GL_KEEP, GL_KEEP, GL_ZERO); glColor3f(0.5,0.5,0.5); // 50% gray glCoverFillPathInstancedNV(6, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, “\000\001\002\003\004\005”, glyphBase, GL_BOUNDING_BOX_OF_BOUNDING_BOXES_NV, GL_TRANSLATE_2D_NV, xtranslate); The word “OpenGL” in gray is now stenciled into the framebuffer.

Instead of solid 50% gray, the cover operation can apply a linear gradient that changes from green (RGB=0,1,0) at the top of the word “OpenGL” to blue (RGB=0,0,1) at the bottom of “OpenGL” using the instructions shown in TABLE 11.

TABLE 11 const GLfloat rgbGen[3][3] = { 0, 0, 0, //red = constant zero 0, 1, 0, //green = varies with y from bottom (0)to top (1) 0, −1, 1 //blue = varies with y from bottom (1) to top (0) }; glPathColorGenNV(GL_PRIMARY_COLOR, GL_PATH_OBJECT_BOUNDING_BOX_NV,GL_RGB, &rgbGen[0][0]);

Instead of loading just the glyphs for the characters in “OpenGL”, the entire character set could be loaded. This allows the characters of the string to be mapped (offset by the glyphBase) to path object names. A range of glyphs can be loaded using the instructions shown in TABLE 12.

TABLE 12 const int numChars = 256; // ISO/IEC 8859-1 8-bit character range GLuint glyphBase = glGenPathsNV(numChars); glPathGlyphRangeNV(glyphBase, GL_SYSTEM_FONT_NAME_NV, “Helvetica”, GL_BOLD_BIT_NV, 0, numChars, GL_SKIP_MISSING_GLYPH_NV, templatePathObject, emScale); glPathGlyphRangeNV(glyphBase, GL_SYSTEM_FONT_NAME_NV, “Arial”, GL_BOLD_BIT_NV, 0, numChars, GL_SKIP_MISSING_GLYPH_NV, templatePathObject, emScale); glPathGlyphRangeNV(glyphBase, GL_STANDARD_FONT_NAME_NV, “Sans”, GL_BOLD_BIT_NV, 0, numChars, GL_USE_MISSING_GLYPH_NV, templatePathObject, emScale);

Given a range of glyphs loaded as path objects, accumulated kerned spacing information can now be queried for the string using the following instruction:

glGetPathSpacingNV(GL_ACCUM_ADJACENT_PAIRS_NV, 7, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, “OpenGLL”, // repeat L to get final spacing glyphBase, 1.0f, 1.0f, GL_TRANSLATE_X_NV,kerning); Using the range of glyphs, stenciling and covering the instanced paths for “OpenGL” can be accomplished using the instructions shown in TABLE 13to complete rendering of resolution independent text.

TABLE 13 glStencilFillPathInstancedNV(6, glyphBase, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, “OpenGL”, GL_PATH_FILL_MODE_NV, 0xFF, GL_TRANSLATE_2D_NV, xtranslate); glCoverFillPathInstancedNV(6, glyphBase, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, “OpenGL”, GL_BOUNDING_BOX_OF_BOUNDING_BOXES_NV, GL_TRANSLATE_2D_NV, xtranslate);

One embodiment of the invention may be implemented as a program product for use with a computer system. The program(s) of the program product define functions of the embodiments (including the methods described herein) and can be contained on a variety of computer-readable storage media. Illustrative computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to: (i) non-writable storage media (e.g., read-only memory devices within a computer such as CD-ROM disks readable by a CD-ROM drive, flash memory, ROM chips or any type of solid-state non-volatile semiconductor memory) on which information is permanently stored; and (ii) writable storage media (e.g., floppy disks within a diskette drive or hard-disk drive or any type of solid-state random-access semiconductor memory) on which alterable information is stored.

The invention has been described above with reference to specific embodiments. Persons skilled in the art, however, will understand that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The foregoing description and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of rendering a path, the method comprising: receiving a specification of the path; executing, by a graphics processing unit, a first instruction to generate, via one or more point containment operations, values to be stored in a stencil buffer that indicate whether samples of the path are to be covered by rasterizing path geometry; and executing, by the graphics processing unit, a second instruction to rasterize covering geometry that conservatively covers the path, without tessellating the path, to determine surviving pixels that are covered by the path and shade the surviving pixels to produce a rendered image of the path, wherein the surviving pixels pass a stencil test that applies the stencil buffer to the rasterized covering geometry.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the stencil buffer identifies a region of the path that is filled.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein stencil buffer identifies a region of the path that is stroked.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the covering geometry comprises a single polygon that bounds the path.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the surviving pixels includes discarding rasterized samples having a corresponding stencil value in the stencil buffer that is equal to a neutral value.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphics processing unit is configured to perform clipping, scissoring, or depth testing of the path by the first instruction or the second instruction.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising writing a neutral value to each stencil value that passes the stencil test during execution of the second instruction.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising decomposing the path into simple cubic Bèzier path segments to generate the path geometry.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising decomposing the path into quadratic Bèzier path segments to generate the path geometry.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transforming the path geometry into pixel space prior to generating the stencil buffer; and transforming the covering geometry into the pixel space prior to determining the surviving pixels.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more point containment operations determine whether the samples are inside of a boundary of at least one of a cubic Bèzier path segment and a quadratic Bèzier path segment.
 12. A system for rendering a path, the system comprising: a memory that is configured to store a stencil buffer; and a processor that is coupled to the memory and configured to: receive a specification of the path; execute a first instruction to generate, via one or more point containment operations, values to be stored in a stencil buffer that indicate whether samples of the path are to be covered by rasterizing path geometry; executing a second instruction to rasterize covering geometry that conservatively covers the path, without tessellating the path, to determine surviving pixels that are covered by the path, wherein the surviving pixels pass a stencil test that applies the stencil buffer to the rasterized covering geometry; and shade the surviving pixels to produce a rendered image of the path.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the surviving pixels during execution of the second instruction by discarding rasterized samples having a corresponding stencil value in the stencil buffer that is equal to a neutral value.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured by the first instruction or the second instruction to perform clipping, scissoring, or depth testing of the path.
 15. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to write a neutral value to each stencil value that is read from the stencil buffer to determine the surviving pixels.
 16. A method for rendering a path, the method comprising: executing a first command, provided by an applications programming interface (API), that specifies the path and generates, via one or more point containment operations, values to be stored in a stencil buffer that indicate whether samples are inside of the path by rendering path geometry corresponding to the path; and executing a second command, provided by the API, that covers the path based on the stencil buffer by rendering covering geometry corresponding to the path to produce a rendered image without tessellating the path.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the path includes at least one Bezier segment or partial elliptical arc.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein the path represents a glyph from a type face.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to render a path, by performing the steps of: executing a first command, provided by an applications programming interface (API), that specifies the path and generates, via one or more point containment operations, values to be stored in a stencil buffer that indicate whether samples are inside of the path by rendering path geometry corresponding to the path; and executing a second command, provided by the API, that covers the path based on the stencil buffer by rendering covering geometry corresponding to the path to produce a rendered image without tessellating the path.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the path includes at least one Bezier segment or partial elliptical arc.
 21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the path represents a glyph from a type face. 